Good news for kidnappers -Ransom money is tax deductible says Court‎
PrintListen to this Article
If you are kidnapped while on a business trip and pay a ransom to your abductors, you can show the amount as "business expenditure" and get a tax exemption on it. This according to an August 23 Jabalpur high court order, which upheld the local tax tribunal’s decision to allow a Madhya pradesh businessman to claim tax deduction on the ransom he paid his kidnappers.
Sukhnandan Jain, director of a bidi sales and manufacturing company in Sagar district, was kidnapped by the notorious Raju Bhatnagar gang on August 5, 1987, while on a trip to buy tendu leaves. After the police failed to rescue him, his family paid a R5.5-lakh ransom after which he was released on August 27 that year. Jain filed this amount under "general expenses" and claimed income tax deduction on it. The tax assessing officer disallowed it on the ground that a ransom wasn’t "an expenditure incidental to business". The revenue department later argued at the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal that payment of ransom was prohibited by law. However, the tribunal and the income tax commissioner ruled in favour of Jain. The tribunal, however, referred the matter to the high court for its opinion. It its order, a two-judge high court bench said, "During his business tour, he was kidnapped. For a period of near-about 20 days after lodging a report with the police, the respondent It added: "Nowhere is it provided that to save the life of a person, if a ransom is paid, it amounts to an offence." "In these circumstances, we affirm the reasonings of the commissioner of income tax and the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal allowing the aforesaid expenditure as business expenditure." When HT contacted Jain over telephone on Wednesday, he said he was busy in a meeting and would not be available for comment.(Hindustan times)
waited…"
Category : Income Tax | Comments : 0 | Hits : 745
As many as 5,44,205 appeals were pending resolution with the Income Tax (IT) Department at commissioner (appeals) level as of January 31 this year, and 63,246 at various Income Tax Appellate Tribunals (ITATs), High Courts, and the Supreme Court, FE has learnt. To be precise, the cases pending in ITATs were 20,266 High Courts, 37,436; and Supreme Court 5,544. The large pendency is even as the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has laid emphasis on disposing of income tax appeals in its 10...
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has facilitated taxpayers to file their Income Tax Returns (ITRs) for the Assessment Year 2024-25 (relevant to Financial Year 2023-24) from 1st April, 2024 onwards. The ITR functionalities i.e. ITR-1, ITR-2 and ITR-4, commonly used by taxpayers are available on the e-filing portal from 1st April, 2024 onwards for taxpayers to file their Returns. Companies will also be able to file their ITRs through ITR-6 from April 1 onwards. As ...
It has come to notice that misleading information related to new tax regime is being spread on some social media platforms. It is therefore clarified that the new regime under section 115BAC(1A) was introduced in the Finance Act 2023 which was as under as compared to the existing old regime (without exemptions): New Regime 115BAC (1A) introduced for FY 2023-24 Existing old Regime 0-3 lacs 0% 0-2.5 lacs 0% ...
The income tax department on Sunday said it has started sending emails and SMSs to assessees whose taxes paid during the current fiscal are not commensurate with financial transactions. To flag the mismatches in payment of taxes in financial year 2023-24 (assessment year 2024-25) and the financial transactions made by persons or entities, the Income Tax Department has started sending emails and messages through SMSs to assessees. The tax department on Sunday urged assesses, who have not pa...
Income of any fund or institution or trust or any university or other educational institution or any hospital or other medical institution referred to in specified sub-clauses of section 10 (23C) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (the ‘Act’) or any trust or institution registered under section 12AA/12AB of the Act is exempt, subject to fulfilment of certain conditions specified under various sections of the Act. Finance Act, 2023 provided that donations made by a trust...
Comments