M/s Padmini Products Pvt. Ltd. Vs DCIT (ITAT Bangalore)
Assessee filed return of income declaring loss and thereafter, filed revised return enhancing the amount of loss declared in the original return. The case of the assessee was selected for scrutiny and notice under section 143(2) was issued by AO. The assessee contended that the scrutiny assessment proceedings were not valid because the notice under section 143(2) was issued pursuant to original return of income and not on the basis of revised return of income filed by the assessee.
Argument of the assessee is not correct as there is no status to revised return in the eye of law merely to rectify any omission or wrong statement made in the original return. It is clear from the notice u/s 143(2) that the AO noted down the filing of revised return on 12/12/2012, therefore, it cannot be said that notice was issued without considering the revised return. In our view, this contention of the assessee is baseless and is required to be dismissed.
FULL TEXT OF THE ITAT JUDGMENT
This appeal by the assessee is directed against the order passed by the Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals) -5, Bangalore dated 27th Jan, 2016 for the assessment year 2012-13.
2. The assessee has raised the following grounds of appeal:
2.1 The brief facts of the case are that the assessee company filed return of income declaring a loss of Rs.6,91,37,352/- and latter the assessee filed revised return of income on 12/12/200 1 declaring total loss of Rs.7,20,76,759/-. The case was selected for scrutiny assessment and notice u/s 143(2) was issued on 8/8/20 13. The notice stipulates as under:
3. In response to the notice, the authorized representative filed reply and produced the books of account and the AO was not convinced with the reasons given by the assessee and, therefore, the AO assessed the income by disallowing the depreciation of intangible to the extent of 3,91,32,683/- vide order dated 13/11/2014.
4. Aggrieved by the order of the AO, the assessee filed appeal before the CIT(A), who in turn upheld the order of the AO. Hence, the assessee is before us.
5. Before us, the AR submitted that the assessment proceedings were not valid as notice u/s 143(2) was issued pursuant to the original return of income and not on the basis of the revised return of income dated 12/12/20 12.
6. In fact, argument of the assessee is not correct as there is no status to revised return in the eye of law merely to rectify any omission or wrong statement made in the original return. It is clear from the notice u/s 143(2) that the AO noted down the filing of revised return on 12/12/2012, therefore, it cannot be said that notice was issued without considering the revised return. In our view, this contention of the assessee is baseless and is required to be dismissed.
7. We find that the reasoning given by the learned CIT(A) in paragraph 5 is the correct reasoning as the notice was issued by the AO within a period of limitation and there is no delay in issuing notice. Accordingly, the ground No.1 is decided against the assessee.
8. With respect to ground No.2, it is pointed out by the learned DR that this issue is covered against the assessee in the assessee’ s own case for earlier assessment years from 2005-06 to 2008-09 in ITA Nos.429 to 430/Bang/2013 dated 10/1/2014, wherein at paragraph 16 to 25 it has been held as under:
“16. The first question for adjudication before us is whether the earlier partnership firm was required under law to revalue the assets before its conversion into a company. As rightly pointed out by the learned counsel for the assessee, when a partnership firm is dissolved, it needs to revalue its assets as the partners are entitled to receive the value of the assets as on the date of dissolution in the ratio of their contribution of capital and, therefore, to arrive at the value of the assets as on the date of dissolution the revaluation of assets and liabilities is required to be done. Similar is the case where any of the partners retires or any new partner is inducted. But what happens when there is no induction of a new partner or retirement of any partner or dissolution of partnership firm? The requirement of revaluation of the assets and liabilities arises only in the circumstances mentioned above. In the case on hand, the assessee had revalued its assets on the ground that it was getting converted into a private limited company. The learned counsel for the assessee had placed reliance upon the decision of the Hon ’ble Supreme Court in the case of Kartikeya A. V Sarabhai (cited Supra) in support of his contention that the shareholders who buy shares will not have any interest in the property of the company which is entirely distinct from the shareholder and the true position of the shareholder in a company on buying the shares is that he becomes entitled to a percentage in the profits of the company if and when company declares, subject to memorandum of association that the profits or any portion thereof should be distributed as dividend amongst the shareholders and he has further right to percentage in the assets of the company which would be left-over after winding up. Thus, he tried to bring out distinction between the rights of the partners in a partnership firm which is joint and several in contrast to the rights and liabilities of the shareholders in a company. He has also relied upon the decision of the Hon ’ble Supreme Court in the case of Vodafone International holdings reported in 341 ITR 1 (SC) to bring out distinction between the holding company and wholly owned subsidiary in which the Hon ’ble Supreme Court has held that the legal relationship between the holding company and wholly owned subsidiary is that they are two legally distinct persons and holding company does not own the assets of a subsidiary and in law the management of the business of the subsidiary also lies with its directors. Thus, according to him, the partnership firm and the assessee company are two different and distinct legal entities and it cannot be said that the assessee company has not acquired any assets from the erstwhile partnership firm. To appreciate these contentions of the assessee, we have to examine the procedure and effect of conversion of a partnership firm into a company. The Hon ’ble Bombay High Court in the case of CIT Vs. Texspin Engg and Manufacturing Works reported in (2003) 263 ITR 345 (Bom) has considered the effect of conversion of a partnership firm into a limited company by virtue of sec. 575 of the Companies Act and has held that under part IX of the Companies Act, when a partnership firm is converted to a limited company, the properties of the erstwhile firm vests in the limited company. It was observed that there is a difference in vesting of the property and distribution of the property. It was held that on vesting in the limited company under part IX of the Companies Act, the properties vest in the company as they exist while distribution of property on dissolution pre-supposes division, realization, encashment of assets and appropriation of the realized amount as per the priority and that this difference is very important. Having observed thus, the Hon ’ble High Court held that there is no transfer of property and no capital gains arise from such a transaction. The Hon ’ble High Court was dealing with the case of the partnership firm while in the case on hand, we are dealing with the case of the company. In the case of Texspin, the questions considered were –
(1) whether capital gains arose in the hands of the partnership firm on conversion of the firm into the company, and
(2) whether the firm was entitled to depreciation on the assets owned by it till the date of transfer.
