Section 40(a)(ia): Disallowance of expenditure for non-deduction of tax at source on payment made to resident

Section 40(a)(ia) – Disallowance of expenditure for non – deduction of tax at source on payment made to resident

Issue/Justification

Section 40(a)(ia) is amended via Finance (No. 2) Act, 2014 to restrict the amount of disallowance for non-deduction of tax to 30% of expenditure. The proviso is also amended to the effect that 30% of such sum shall be allowed as a deduction in computing the income of the previous year in which tax has been paid.

However, the language of the proviso raises a doubt as to whether any expenditure disallowed 100% in earlier year(s) will be allowed fully on TDS compliance in the current year. The wordings of the said proviso indicate that only 30% of amount of expenditure disallowed in the past year(s) will be allowed as a deduction.

Suggestion

Since the language of the present amended provision of section 40(a)(ia) does not allow full claim of the 100% disallowance made in earlier years, it is suggested that the said amendment may be brought by way of insertion of a separate sub-clause instead of amending the existing sub-clause (ia) to section 40(a). This will maintain status quo in respect of allowabilty of such expenditure (which was 100% disallowed under this provision during the Assessment year 2014-15 and before), in the subsequent year on TDS compliance.

Source-  ICAI Pre-Budget Memorandum–2018 (Direct Taxes and International Tax)