83 year old woman wins case against income tax department in appeal

New Delhi: An 83-year-old widow has won a case in the Income-Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) against the penalty imposed by the Income Tax Department for not filing Income Tax Return (ITR). The Delhi bench of the ITAT, while giving its verdict in favor of the woman, set aside the fine imposed on her. This case dates back to 2011-12 when this elderly woman from Gurugram was shocked to receive a notice of Rs 5,000 from the tax department. Being a housewife, she never filed her ITR due to non-taxable income. This fine was imposed on him under section 271F of the then IT. This action was taken against him for not filing the tax return by the due date. Not only this, the Commissioner (Appeals) had not issued proper guidelines regarding this penalty.

It may be noted that section 234F has been implemented with effect from April 1, 2018, in place of the provisions of section 271F. At present, there is a penalty of Rs 5,000 for late filing of ITR (the penalty is Rs 1,000 for small taxpayers whose total income does not exceed Rs 5 lakh). However, the woman decided to challenge the department’s action. He told the ITAT that the Income Tax Officer had made a mistake in assessing his income. Due process has also not been followed. The order of penalty is ex parte.

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Later, he filed an appeal against this order stating that he was not responsible for filing the return in this case and the fact was not considered by the Commissioner (Appeals) under the faceless appeal mechanism. He told the ITAT that the order was not in accordance with law on several grounds. Since he had ‘reasonable reason’ for not filing ITR. As such, the order of penalty was arbitrary, illegal and without jurisdiction.