Sahasralingeswara Swamy Temple Vs ITO (Exemptions) (ITAT Visakhapatnam)
No Retro Blessing: ITAT Denies 12A Benefits to Temple for Pre-Registration Years; No 12A Exemption for Pre-Registration Years Without Pending Assessment: ITAT Visakhapatnam
Visakhapatnam ITAT has held that a trust cannot claim exemption u/s s 11 & 12, including the 15% accumulation benefit, for assessment years prior to the grant of registration u/s 12A, unless the assessment proceedings were already pending on the date of registration.
Assessee, a religious temple trust taken over by the Andhra Pradesh Endowments Department in 1976, filed returns for the relevant years declaring agricultural income & claiming 15% accumulation u/s 11(1)(a). Registration u/s 12A was granted to the assessee only with effect from AY 2017-18.
For AY 2014-15, AO reopened the assessment u/s 147 in March 2021 & on completion of the reassessment, denied the 15% accumulation exemption, bringing to tax the surplus income of ₹17.19 lakh. AO held that, in the absence of registration u/s 12A for the relevant year, Assessee was not eligible for any exemption u/s s 11 & 12. Further, the proviso to section 12A(2) could not assist Assessee since the reassessment proceedings were not “pending” as on the date of registration in July 2017.
