Mistake In The Personal Information Of The Trust Is A Rectifiable Mistake At Any Stage: ITAT

The Delhi Bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has held that a mistake in the personal information of the assessee is always rectifiable at any stage.

The two-member bench of Anubhav Sharma (Judicial Member) and Shamim Yahya (Accountant Member) has observed that the tax authorities below have fallen into error by not taking into consideration the rectification application. The nature of a mistake is one that falls into the definition of a mistake apparent from the record and is liable to be corrected without any requirement of a revised return.

The assessee/appellant is a government board registered under Section 12A of the Income Tax Act. All along, it had been filing its return of income and claiming an exemption under Section 11 for the last many years and also later years. The exemption has been granted to it in various years. The mistake was in Part A of the return, which calls for personal information about the assessee. The assessee was supposed to submit "YES" in the column in point B of Part A-GEN of the return, which was meant to disclose the date of approval, registration, etc., to claim the benefit of exemption. It seems that "NO" was mentioned mistakenly by the assessee and relevant information about registration, etc. was shown as "NO." The exemption intended to be claimed by the assessee was not allowed by the CPC.

The appellant contended that the CBDT had directed officers of the department to provide the assessee with a benefit to which he was clearly entitled but had failed to claim.

The department contended that there is no error in the findings of the tax authorities below. It was submitted that in the return as filed, an exemption was not claimed, so the same could not be allowed by way of rectification.

While allowing the appeal, the tribunal returned the matter to the AO's files to consider the assessee's rectification application and claim of exemption based on the information on record or to be further verified from the record.

Case Title: Grih Kalyan Kendra Board Versus ITO

Citation: ITA No. 1993/Del/2021

Date: 05.12.2022

Counsel For Appellant: Advocate Rano Jain, CA Mansi Jain

Counsel For Respondent: Sr. DR Pradeep Gautam

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