The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal ( ITAT ), Chennai Bench, ruled that the belated filing of Form 67 cannot serve as a valid ground for denying Foreign Tax Credit (FTC) to a taxpayer.
The order was delivered by a bench comprising Manoj Kumar Aggarwal (Accountant Member) and Manu Kumar Giri (Judicial Member). The appeals were filed by Shri Satishkumar Ekambaram for the assessment years 2018-19 and 2019-20.
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The issue arose when the Centralized Processing Center (CPC), Bengaluru, disallowed the taxpayer’s claim for FTC amounting to ₹9.59 lakhs for AY 2018-19. The reason cited was the delayed submission of Form 67, which, under Rule 128(9) of the Income Tax Rules, is required to be filed alongside the income tax return under Section 139(1). The taxpayer filed the form belatedly with a revised return on March 30, 2019, but the claim was rejected.
The Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) [CIT(A)] supported the CPC’s action, leading the taxpayer to escalate the matter to the ITAT.
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The taxpayer’s representative was absent during the hearing, while the respondent was represented by Shri A.R.V. Srinivasan, Additional Commissioner of Income Tax and Senior Departmental Representative.
The ITAT relied on its earlier ruling in ITO vs. Smt. Chengam Durga and the Madras High Court decision in Duraiswamy Kumaraswamy (2022). Both precedents established that the filing of Form 67 is directory in nature and procedural non-compliance should not defeat legitimate claims.
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The Tribunal directed the CIT(A) to allow the taxpayer’s FTC claim after verifying Form 67, asserting that procedural delays should not undermine substantive rights granted by the law. The decision for AY 2019-20 was aligned with the ruling for AY 2018-19, as both cases presented identical issues.
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