Dear Sunil ji , Wish u a very happy diwali and a prosperous new year.
There is a case law on same . Its allowed . The intention of the legislature is to protect the interest of the revenue . The gist of the same is produced for your reference :-
The main sub-clause (ia) as well as the proviso thereto makes deduction from the payee an essential condition for allowing expenditure as business deduction in the hands of the assessee. However, in a similar provision contained in sub-clause (i) of section 40(a) in respect of payments to non-residents and foreign companies, the Rajasthan High Court, in Addl. CIT v. Farasal Ltd. (1987) 163 ITR 364-371-2 (Raj), interpreted the word “paid” in that sub-clause to include involuntary payment of tax collected by the Revenue. In doing so, it took into account the fact that the object of section 40(a) (i) is to protect the interest of Revenue by ensuring that in respect of the amount chargeable under the Act and payable outside India, the tax is paid by the non-resident or deducted in cases where the non-resident does not have any agent in India from whom the tax can be recovered. From this point of view, it is immaterial whether the Revenue has received payment of the tax due either voluntarily or by initiation of recovery proceedings against him. Following the ratio of the said judgement of the Rajasthan High Court, the voluntary or involuntary payments of tax should be covered in the word “paid” used in section 40(a) (ia) also. Deduction of expenditure should be allowed to the assessee in case of involuntary payments. The word “paid” would also take in voluntary payments made by the assessee without deduction from the payee.
In my earlier post of 20/9/09 , i had requested for a case law on this , since no one else could find it , i did the exercise myself , hope this is beneficial to all .No one would generally bother unless the amount is big , but TDS liability is a credit , the debit goes to respective expense a/c and has to be allowed .
The concerned payee should be asked to modify the bill accordingly , since the payee is expected to claim the TDS , the debit should be given to his expense account in the payers book .
Now if the TDS is expected to be recovered from the payee (which will generally never be the case ) , it should be shown as a advance paid on behalf of the payee (current asset)
Case law is for expense disallowance (as requested by Kapil ji )and not for TDS allowed /disallowed as expenditure