Delhi ITAT held that delayed employees’ PF/ESI contributions are disallowable even under section 143(1), citing Supreme Court in Checkmate Services. However, ICDS-based depreciation adjustments exceed CPC powers and were deleted.
ITAT Delhi held that when an assessee’s own funds far exceed interest-free advances, no disallowance under Section 36(1)(iii) can be made. Interest addition of ₹5.62 crore was deleted, and 14A disallowance was limited to dividend-yielding investments.
The ITAT Chennai Bench dismissed an appeal because the Assessing Officer (AO) was located in Hyderabad, violating Rule 4 which dictates ITAT jurisdiction is based on the AO’s office. The ruling affirmed the principle from the Supreme Court that appeals must be filed before the correct jurisdictional ITAT Bench, though it granted the taxpayer liberty to refile properly.
The ITAT ruled on a Transfer Pricing adjustment, holding that companies failing the 75% export filter (MAA Business Solutions) and the Related Party Transaction (RPT) filter (WNS Global) must be excluded from the comparable set for ITES providers. The Tribunal directed a fresh re-computation of the arm’s length price (ALP) after applying correct filters, providing relief to the assessee.
The ITAT ruled that a claimed business loss on the sale of a scrip, allegedly part of a penny stock syndicate, was genuine and allowable. The ruling emphasized that transactions supported by complete documentation (contract notes, demat, bank statements) and where no tax-exempt capital gain was claimed cannot be disallowed merely based on a general modus operandi or third-party information.
ITAT directed the AO/TPO to accept the corrected operating margins for comparables in the Business Support Services segment, specifically for Forbes Facility Services Pvt. Ltd. The Tribunal’s order rectifies computational errors and ensures that the benchmarking is based on correct financial data, allowing for proper recomputation of the ALP.
ITAT annulled an assessment and addition of $\text{Rs. }31.80$ crore of share capital made under Section 153C, ruling that the jurisdiction was invalid for an unabated assessment year. The key takeaway is that for an already completed assessment, the AO must rely on incriminating material found during the search, not mere statutory documents already in the books.
The ITAT ruled that Compulsorily Convertible Debentures (CCDs) legally remain debt until conversion, rejecting the Transfer Pricing Officers (TPO) re-characterization of them as equity. The Tribunal quashed the Nil Arm’s Length Price (ALP) for associated interest and remanded the matter for fresh benchmarking.
ITAT upheld the deletion of a 25% bogus purchase addition, ruling that the AO cannot disallow purchases based merely on suspicion and circumstantial evidence when the audited books of account were not rejected. The key takeaway is that without finding defects or rejecting the books, and while accepting sales, disallowance of purchases is impermissible.
The issue was whether agricultural land compulsorily acquired in NOIDA was a taxable capital asset. The ITAT, relying on judicial precedent, ruled it was pure agricultural land and thus not taxable, rejecting the taxman’s attempt to treat the NOIDA area as a municipality.
