In Madhavi Raksha Sankalp Nirmal Niketan v. DCIT (Exemption), the ITAT Mumbai said that in cae of allegation regarding anonymous donations receied by a Trust, other than a religious Trust, the onus of proving the genuineness of the donations is on the assessee Trust that the said donatios are not subject to tax under section 115BBC of the Income Tax Act.
Assessee received donations from about 6500 persons and claimed deduction in respect of the same. The AO denied the claim by treating these donations as anonymous donations which are liable to be taxed under section 115BBC. The Officer alleged that the complete address, PAN and other details are not provided in the receipt.
The bench observed that the assessee has shown additions to corpus donations to the tune of Rs. 2,42,26,508/- and has submitted in paper book filed with the tribunal copies of some of such direction letters of donation issued by the donors whereby instructions are issued by the donors that the donations shall form part of the corpus of the trust. “The names of the donors were given in the said letters but the addresses and PAN of the donors were not given. These are standard letters which are identical for all the donors. The said letters contained the name of village/taluka/district and State of the donor but the addresses, father’s name and PAN of the donors are not there. Another peculiar feature is that it is a common direction letter issued by multiple donors ranging from 2-5 donors and Demand draft/Pay order mentioned in said common donation letter are also same being consolidated amount covered for the donation in the said letter as donated by 2-5 donors. We find that assessee is not a religious trust hence the amount is hit by provisions of Section 115 BBC of the Act and the onus is on the assessee to prove that it is covered by exceptions to chargeability to tax as is provided by provisions of Section 115BBC of 1961 Act, namely that the assessee maintained a record of the identity indicating the name and address of the person making such contribution and such other particulars as may be prescribed or else it is a religious trust.”
While remitting the matter back to the files of the Assesssing Officer, the bench said, “the onus as well burden of proof is entirely on the assessee to provide to the AO all relevant details as contemplated under section 115BBC of 1961 Act to the satisfaction of the AO as to compliance of Section 115BBC of 1961 Act and as to genuineness of the said donation. The assessee is directed to furnish PAN , addresses and all other relevant details of all the said donors before the AO to satisfy mandate of Section 115BBC of 1961 Act. The assessee is directed to produce before the AO donors , 25% in numbers for donation up-to Rs 20,000/- and 10% in number for donations above Rs.20,000/- to satisfy the AO about compliance of mandate of Section 115BBC of the Act and genuineness of the such donations. The selection of donors shall be on random basis at the sole discretion of the AO, which short listed list of donors shall be supplied by the AO to the assessee for necessary compliance as per our above directions.”
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