ITAT deletes additions as sum appearing in SWISS bank was assessee’s foreign-sourced income earned when he was NR

  • Blog|News|Income Tax|
  • 2 Min Read
  • By Taxmann
  • |
  • Last Updated on 18 January, 2022

Income-tax Act 1961 - Unexplained moneys (Bank deposit)

Case Details: Deputy Commissioner of Income-tax v. Ganpat Singhvi - [2022] 134 taxmann.com 6 (Mumbai - Trib.)

Judiciary and Counsel Details

    • Rajesh Kumar, Accountant Member and Ravish Sood, Judicial Member
    • A.K. Gosh, A.R. for the Appellant. 
    • Vijay Kumar Subramaniyan, D.R. for the Respondent.

Facts of the Case

Assessee-individual was a Chartered Accountant. During the assessment year 2006-07, he was non-resident, and the assessment was completed accordingly. Afterwards, AO received information that the assessee had two bank accounts in HSBC Bank, Geneva. The first account was in the name of company Blueridge, and the other account was in the joint names of the assessee and his brother and said it was not disclosed by the assessee.
AO finalised the assessment was framed under section 143(3) read with section 147 making an addition to the assessee’s income equal to peak balance in both the bank accounts. However, CIT(A) reversed the finding of AO. Aggrieved-AO filed the instant appeal before the Tribunal.

ITAT Held

The Mumbai Tribunal held that the department had failed to bring any evidence on record to show that the assessee has any beneficial interest in the company, i.e. Blueridge or the bank account held by the company with HSBC Geneva.

The assessee filed three independent/third-party pieces of evidence before the CIT(A) to show that he had no direct or indirect beneficial interest in the company, namely, Blueridge with HSBC Geneva.

Regarding the other account, the assessee had opened a joint account along with his brother in HSBC Geneva in 1998 and had transferred funds since 1998 to this account from his other account in HSBC Abu Dhabi, UAE. The source of the funds transferred from HSBC Abu Dhabi, UAE were out of the income earned in Abu Dhabi and savings made by the assessee during his stay in Abu Dhabi, UAE, as a non-resident Indian since 1976.
Considering all these facts, the order of Commissioner (Appeals) was to be upheld and the appeal filed by the revenue to be dismissed.

List of Cases Referred to

Disclaimer: The content/information published on the website is only for general information of the user and shall not be construed as legal advice. While the Taxmann has exercised reasonable efforts to ensure the veracity of information/content published, Taxmann shall be under no liability in any manner whatsoever for incorrect information, if any.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Everything on Tax and Corporate Laws of India

To subscribe to our weekly newsletter please log in/register on Taxmann.com

Author: Taxmann

Taxmann Publications has a dedicated in-house Research & Editorial Team. This team consists of a team of Chartered Accountants, Company Secretaries, and Lawyers. This team works under the guidance and supervision of editor-in-chief Mr Rakesh Bhargava.

The Research and Editorial Team is responsible for developing reliable and accurate content for the readers. The team follows the six-sigma approach to achieve the benchmark of zero error in its publications and research platforms. The team ensures that the following publication guidelines are thoroughly followed while developing the content:

  • The statutory material is obtained only from the authorized and reliable sources
  • All the latest developments in the judicial and legislative fields are covered
  • Prepare the analytical write-ups on current, controversial, and important issues to help the readers to understand the concept and its implications
  • Every content published by Taxmann is complete, accurate and lucid
  • All evidence-based statements are supported with proper reference to Section, Circular No., Notification No. or citations
  • The golden rules of grammar, style and consistency are thoroughly followed
  • Font and size that's easy to read and remain consistent across all imprint and digital publications are applied