Hubtown Limited Vs ACIT (ITAT Mumbai)
The Mumbai ITAT held that in an abated assessment, the return filed u/s 153A replaces the original return u/s 139 & the assessee is legally entitled to make fresh or additional claims, including reduction of earlier disallowances. Accordingly, the Tribunal upheld deletion of addition of ₹6.66 crore made merely because the loss declared in the 153A return was higher than the loss in the original return, holding that such restriction has no statutory backing in an abated year.
On merits, the Tribunal deleted the entire addition of ₹1.35 crore made u/s 69A on alleged cash receipts in sale of flats, holding that section 69A was wrongly invoked as the assessee was not “found to be owner” of any unexplained money & the addition was based only on retracted statements & WhatsApp chats without independent corroboration.
On CSR expenditure, the Tribunal affirmed that while CSR is not allowable u/s 37(1), donation forming part of CSR is eligible for deduction u/s 80G, subject to fulfilment of statutory conditions, relying on consistent ITAT precedents. The Revenue’s appeal was dismissed & the assessee’s appeal was allowed in full.
FULL TEXT OF THE ORDER OF ITAT MUMBAI
Both the appeals filed by the assessee and the revenue are directed against the order of the Learned Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals)-48, Mumbai [hereinafter called ‘Ld.CIT(A)] passed under section 250 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (in short, ‘the Act’) for Assessment Year 2018-19, date of order 25/02/2025. The impugned order emanated from the order of the Learned Assistant Commissioner of Income-tax, Central Circle-2(4), Mumbai (in short, ‘Ld AO’) passed under section 153A of the Act, order dated 30/09/2021.
