Rajendra Ganpat Jagtap Vs ITO (ITAT Pune)
ITAT Pune allowed the assessee’s appeal for statistical purposes, directing the CIT(A) to provide one final chance to substantiate claims regarding long-term capital gains on property sale. The reassessment of Rs. 2.81 crore remains subject to proper consideration.
The case of Rajendra Ganpat Jagtap Vs ITO (ITAT Pune) concerns a non-filer of an Income Tax Return (ITR) whose assessment was reopened by the Income Tax Officer (ITO) for the Assessment Year (AY) 2018-2019 due to high-value financial transactions.
Case Summary and Background
The taxpayer, Rajendra Ganpat Jagtap, was identified as having undertaken significant financial transactions during the Financial Year (FY) 2017-18, totaling ₹2,97,71,698/-. The major component of this was a sale consideration of ₹2,95,00,000/- from the sale of an immovable property (as reported via a TDS Statement under Section 194-IA). Other transactions included commission/brokerage and rent payments.
The ITO, acting under Section 147 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (the Act), reopened the assessment. The taxpayer eventually filed a belated return, declaring a total income of ₹17,54,860/-.
During the assessment, the ITO determined the total income to be ₹2,98,88,836/-. A significant addition of ₹2,81,33,976/- was made on account of Long Term Capital Gains (LTCG) from the property sale. While the ITO allowed the indexed cost of acquisition at ₹27,200/- against the sale price of ₹2,95,00,000/-, the claim for expenses incurred towards improvement of the land, amounting to ₹2,03,33,500/-, was disallowed, with the ITO deeming it “devoid of merit.”
