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Whether in determination of book profit u/s 115JB of I. T. Act, adjustment is to be made for:-(a) Depreciation not debited to P & L Account but a note is given in respect thereof; (b) Capital gain not credited to P & L account and taken to reserve; (c) Prior period expenses and extra ordinary items; (d) Difference in the amount of depreciation on account of change in the method of providing depreciation i.e. straight line to WDV or vice-versa?
The assessee earned long-term capital gains of Rs. 40.57 L which was not chargeable to tax u/s 54EC. As the said gains were credited to the P&L A/c, the assessee excluded the gains whilst computing “book profits” u/s 115JB in view of the Special Bench judgement in Sutlej Cotton Mills 45 ITD 22 (Cal) (SB) where it had been held that non-taxable capital receipts had to be excluded from book profits. The AO and the CIT (A) rejected the claim. On appeal by the assessee HELD dismissing the appeal:
The government is likely to ease the incidence of minimum alternate tax, or MAT, on infrastructure companies. The department of revenue plans to change the proposed direct tax code to exempt these companies from MAT for the first few years since they execute projects with long gestation periods. The code, in its current form, says all companies must pay MAT based on their gross asset value. In the case of infrastructure companies, this is very high since their asset base is huge. “It is oneof the proposals we are looking at,” a senior finance ministry official told.
The assessee earned a capital profit of Rs. 10.38 crores on sale of rights to immovable property. The said profit was directly credited to the capital reserves in the balance sheet instead of being routed through the Profit & loss account. The accounts of the assessee company were duly certified by the auditors and were also adopted in the AGM. The audited accounts were filed with ROC. In the computation of “book profits” for s. 115JB, the said capital profits were not included.
It was zero-tax companies, which were profitable and paid dividends to shareholders but owing to various deductions/sops available under the tax laws did not have a taxable income and thus did not pay tax, that caught the attention of the legislators and led to the introduction of MAT. Under the existing provision a company is liable to pay minimum tax u/s. 115JB on its book profit @ 10% if the tax payable by such company on the total income under the other provisions of the Act is less than the tax payable under MAT. The credit of taxes such paid can be carried forward u/s. 115 JAA for 7 years to be set off against the tax liability arising under the other provisions of the Act. At the same time the section provides for the specific additions and deductions that are to be made to book profit in order to arrive at the profit as per section 115JB of the Act.
The concept of Minimum Alternate Tax (“MAT”) was introduced in the Indian tax regime to widen the tax net. Often there were situations where companies declared both profits and dividends but were not liable to taxation on account of various incentives and exemptions provided under the income tax legislation. MAT ensured that such companies were liable to pay some tax. As per the existing provisions of the Income tax Act, 1961, certain companies are liable to pay a fixed percentage of book profit as MAT.
S. 115JB(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (Act in short) provides for payment of a minimum alternate tax in case the Income-tax computed on the total income falls short of 10% of the book profits of the company. For ensuring that companies do not adopt accounting practices to render the provision otiose, Ss.(2) requires the profit and loss account of companies to be prepared as per Parts II and III of Schedule VI to the Companies Act, 1956. Proviso to this sub-section further ensures that the accounting policies, accounting standards and the method and rates of depreciation adopted for the purposes of S. 210 of the Companies Act, are not varied while computing ‘book profit’ u/s.115JB.
Ss. 2(1A), 115JB; A/y 2005-06; in favor of taxpayer: Profits arising on transfer of rural agricultural land amounts to agricultural income under section 2(1A). Such income cannot be included in the total income under section 10(1). Section 115JB provides that any income, listed under section 10, other than the ones listed in clause (38), shall be reduced from the book profit.
Currently companies are required to pay MAT tax if the tax payable under normal provisions of the Act is lower than 10% (15% w.e.f. A.Y. 2010-11) of the book profit as defined u/s.115JB of the Act. An issue which arises is whether an assessee liable to MAT should pay interest u/s.234B and u/s.234C for shortfall in payment of advance tax.
The assessee’s income was computed u/s 115JB as it had no income under the normal provisions of the Act. The assessee claimed that despite the absence of normal profits, it was eligible for deduction u/s 80HHC in computing the book profits under Expl. (iv) of s. 115JB in accordance with the judgement of the Special Bench in Syncome Formulations 106 ITD 193 (Mum) (SB) and that the judgement of the Bombay High Court in Ajanta Pharma 223 CTR 441 (Bom) (which held that Syncome Formulations was overruled) was not applicable. HELD upholding the assessee’s plea:
