ACIT Vs Ashjit Realties Private Limited (ITAT Mumbai)
Sale Deed Registered After 1 April 2017, but Deal Completed Earlier: ₹17.69 Crore Section 56 Addition Deleted
A property sale deed was registered on 15 April 2017, after section 56(2)(x) came into effect. The Assessing Officer treated that date as decisive and taxed the difference between the deed consideration and the stamp valuation. The Mumbai Tribunal, however, examined the transaction’s full chronology: the buyer had paid the consideration years earlier, the deed had been executed, possession had been delivered, and the stamp adjudication process had begun before 1 April 2017. On those particular facts, it upheld deletion of the ₹17,68,86,000 addition.
How the ₹17.69 Crore Difference Arose
Ashjit Realties Pvt. Ltd., a construction and real-estate development company, acquired a Mumbai property known as “Gita Gruh” for ₹21 crore. The sale deed was registered on 15 April 2017. The stamp valuation authority had adopted a value of ₹38,68,86,000. During limited scrutiny concerning investment in immovable property, the Assessing Officer subtracted the stated consideration from that stamp value and added the difference of ₹17,68,86,000 as income from other sources under section 56(2)(x). This took assessed income to ₹17,69,72,610, against returned income of ₹86,610.
The company appealed. Its position was that the registration date did not capture when it had entered into and acted upon the transaction. The Commissioner (Appeals) accepted that position, held that the transaction had crystallised in financial year 2016–17, and deleted the addition. The Revenue challenged that relief before the Tribunal.
