The Amritsar Bench of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has upheld the penalty under Section 271A of the Income Tax Act 1961 as the assessee had failed to submit books of account before assessing authority.
The appeal had been filed against the imposition of penalty under Section 271A of the Income Tax Act 1961.the assessee Yasir Bilal Khan, had not submitted any of the books of accounts before the assessing authority, during the assessment proceedings. The penalty was levied by the AO amount of Rs.25,000/- for assessment year 2015-16 under Section 271 A.
The assessee had placed the reason that due to the devastating flood for September, 2014 in Kashmir valley the books of accounts were destroyed. This was the only reason for non-submission of books of account before the authority during the time of assessment. But the assessee was unable to bring any material fact before any of the authority.
If any person has failed to keep and maintain any books of account and other documents as required by section 44A in respect of any previous year or to retain such books of account and other documents for the period specified in the said rules, the Assessing Officer or the Commissioner (Appeals) may impose penalty, a sum of twenty-five thousand rupees.
Kanchan Garg, appeared on behalf of the revenue.
The Division Bench of M. L. Meena, (Accountant Member) and S.H. Anikesh Banerjee, (Judicial Member) upheld the penalty and dismissed the appeal observing that,
“The penalty for non-submission of books of account before the assessing authority was levied amount to Rs.25,000/- u/s. 271A. The assessee was not able to depict any proper and reasonable cause for non-submission of the books of account before the revenue authorities,” the Bench further observed.
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