The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal bench of Agra recently said that to invoke Section 147 of the Income Tax Act, the burden is on the Assessing Officer to prove income escaping assessment.
In the instant case, information has been received from the Addl. D1T (Inv.), Agra that one Mr. Deepak Gupta has provided bogus entries of gift/sale proceeds of shares to the assessee. In view of the information received from the Investigation Wing and the adverse material in possession of the Department, the AO initiated re-assessment proceedings against the assessee by way of issuing notice u/s 147 read with section 148 of the Act and the CIT (A) confirmed the addition.
The assessee challenged the AO’s action in reopening the assessee’s case and raised the objection that he had not received any such alleged gift from Sri Deepak Gupta and further objected that the reasons recorded were false and the notice issued u/s 148 of the Act was illegal.
After hearing both the sides, A.D. Jain (JM) have a clear idea that A.O. had no specific information regarding the income escapement assessment identified by the investigation wing.
Finally, the Tribunal ordered that no new adverse information has been brought on record which could suggest any justification for satisfaction to initiate proceedings u/s 147/148, in spite of specific request of the appellant and also added that it is the burden of AO to prove that whether income escapement assessment or not.
Subscribe Taxscan Premium to view the Judgment
