The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal ( ITAT ), Amritsar bench recently held that the account holder must be able to prove that the money deposited in his joint account belongs to another account holder in order to escape from addition under section 68 and 69 of the Income Tax Act.
In the instant case, the assessee, a Teacher by Profession has deposited an amount of 49 lakhs in the bank account. During the course of the proceedings, it was explained that the account was a joint account opened by her father along with herself and her two sisters. The amount actually belonged to her father who received the same towards the agreement to sell his property and he divided the same into equal instalments to all his daughters.
While deleting the addition, the bench observed that anyone of the joint account holders could deposit his money therein, so that an assessment on the basis of deposit/s therein could be made in the hands of an account holder.
“It is equally open, it follows, for an account holder to show that the money held/deposited in a joint account does not belong to him but to another account holder, rebutting the presumption of law u/s. 69/69A, which are only rules of evidence incorporating the principles of common law jurisprudence, as explained by the Hon’ble Apex Court time and again.”
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