While granting tax relief to Kolkata based professional football team, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) observed that the payments to the professional football players are truly based on their talent and capacity and if the payments are made through banking channels, there is no room for suspecting the genuineness of such payments.
During the relevant assessment year, the Assessing Officer noted that the assessee-Club provided a PAN number of the players to whom it paid professional fees. However, it was pointed out that PAN Nos. of certain players were not provided and professional payments to certain players was higher than others. Based on these facts, the officer disallowed a claim of 10 lakh rupees made by the assessee.
On the first appeal, the first appellate authority found that the assessee has filed all details of the payments made to the professional football players after deducting TDS.
Before the Tribunal, the department contended that the payments to certain professional players are humungous and therefore, the disallowance is justified.
The Tribunal, while holding in favor of the assessee, noted that PAN Nos. were provided in the case of every player except “Goutam Thakur “Daniell Carl Zeleny”, though TDS has been players and remitted to the Government and are evidenced by vouchers.
“Footballer players would differ from person to person depending upon their talent and capacity. All payments are through banking channels and are evidenced by the vouchers. It is common knowledge that payments to professional footballer players would differ from person to person depending upon their talent and capacity. The assessee, in this case, has discharged the burden of proof that lay on it. In our view, the disallowance is without basis.”
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