MIG Cricket Club Vs DCIT (ITAT Mumbai)
The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Mumbai, dealt with an appeal filed against the order of the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) for Assessment Year 2014–15. The appeal was filed with a delay of 168 days; however, the Tribunal condoned the delay after being satisfied that there was a reasonable cause and admitted the appeal for adjudication.
The assessee, a club, had filed a belated return of income on March 31, 2016, based on provisional accounts and claimed exemption under Section 11 of the Income Tax Act, 1961. At the time of filing the return, the audit of accounts had not been completed and, therefore, the audit report in Form 10B was not furnished along with the return. The audit was completed on December 13, 2016, and the audit report was subsequently issued. However, the Central Processing Centre (CPC) treated the return as invalid and later processed it under Section 143(1), denying the exemption claimed under Section 11.
The assessee challenged this denial before the Commissioner (Appeals) and submitted the audit report during the appellate proceedings. However, the Commissioner (Appeals) upheld the denial of exemption on the ground that the assessee had not filed a condonation application for delay in submitting the audit report before the competent authority. Aggrieved by this, the assessee filed an appeal before the Tribunal.
