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271B / 44AB of I.T. Act

Laxmi Mittal (Practice) (188 Points)

30 January 2010

If an assessee is young / just started started dealing in building material during the year . He was not aware of attracting Section 271B/ Sec. 44AB, wherein he is supposed to get his accounts audited for the A.Y. 2009-10 by 30-09-2009 & file I.T. Return thtereof. Upon pointing out by his business friends, the audit was conducted & I.T. Return is filed in 4th week of November,2009. Is there any plea/ adjuducated cases, wherein we can plea for ignorance of the Act by the assessee , getting Audit Report U/s 44AB & filing I.T. Return for waiver of Section 271B penalty??? Laxmi Mittal lnmittal @ dataone.in

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2 Replies

amit jain (Chartered Accountant) (532 Points)
Replied 22 February 2010

the excuse of didnot know law is not considered as an proper excuse.. so it would apply penalty.. for non audit at .5% of turnover or 100000 which ever is higher

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Amir (Learner) (4016 Points)
Replied 22 February 2010

Dear Laxmi Mam,

A bona fide omission to file a statement, that was required to be filed by a film producer, but was not so filed, because the assessee was new to the business and was unaware of the requirements of law, the Tribunal's finding that the omission was not intentional or deliberate so as to merit penalty was supported by the High Court in CIT v. Schell International [2005] 278 ITR 630 (Bom). While coming to the conclusion, following the precedents on the subject, the High Court cited from the decision of the Supreme Court in Motilal Padampat Sugar Mills Co. Ltd. v. State of Uttar Pradesh [1979] 118 ITR 326 citing a passage from the decision of the House of Lords in Evans v. Bartlam [1937] AC 473 (HL) to the following effect" ……. the fact is that there is not and never has been a presumption that every one knows the law. There is the rule that ignorance of the law does not excuse, a maxim of very different scope and application". It is not often realised that the oft-repeated maxim that ignorance of law is no excuse, has its exceptions.