Declaration form requirement controls tax concession; failure to file triggers admitted tax liability and interest from return due date.

Where a concession or exemption depends on furnishing a prescribed declaration form, failure to produce the form by assessment or appeal defeats the claim and leaves the turnover taxable at the normal rate. On that basis, the tax shown in the return is treated as tax admittedly payable, and interest runs from the due date for filing the return under section 8(1); the post-assessment interest provision in section 8(1B) does not apply. The liability to interest is determined at the return stage and cannot be avoided by asserting legitimate expectation, bona fide belief, or hope that the declaration form would later be filed.

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Issues: (i) Whether, where concession or exemption depends on furnishing a prescribed declaration form and the form is not furnished during assessment or later in appeal, interest under section 8(1) is leviable from the return due date and section 8(1B) is inapplicable; (ii) whether tax assessed at the normal rate in such a case constitutes tax admittedly payable under section 8(1); (iii) whether legitimate expectation, bona fide belief, or hope can avoid liability to interest and whether liability is determined at the return stage.

Issue (i): Whether, where concession or exemption depends on furnishing a prescribed declaration form and the form is not furnished during assessment or later in appeal, interest under section 8(1) is leviable from the return due date and section 8(1B) is inapplicable.

Analysis: The statutory scheme required a dealer to deposit tax on the turnover disclosed in the return and defined "tax admittedly payable" by reference to the return or accounts. The declaration-form rules permitted filing up to the assessment stage, but if the form was never furnished, the claim for concession or exemption failed and tax became chargeable at the normal rate. On the combined reading of the charging and interest provisions, the unpaid amount attracted interest from the date the return ought to have been filed with tax on the admitted turnover, and the post-assessment interest provision had no application because the liability arose from non-payment of tax admittedly payable, not from a separate post-assessment default.

Conclusion: Interest under section 8(1) is leviable from the due date of the return, and section 8(1B) does not apply.

Issue (ii): Whether tax assessed at the normal rate in such a case constitutes tax admittedly payable under section 8(1).

Analysis: The expression "tax admittedly payable" includes tax payable under the Act on turnover disclosed in the return or in the accounts, whichever is greater. Where the dealer's entitlement to concession or exemption depends on proof through declaration forms and those forms are not produced, the assessment correctly proceeds at the normal rate. In that situation, the amount assessed at the normal rate is not an afterthought created by assessment alone; it is the tax that ought to have been paid on the disclosed turnover once the conditional claim failed.

Conclusion: Yes, the tax assessed at the normal rate is tax admittedly payable under section 8(1).

Issue (iii): Whether legitimate expectation, bona fide belief, or hope can avoid liability to interest and whether liability is determined at the return stage.

Analysis: The interest provision is attracted by non-payment of admitted tax within time and does not turn on mala fides. The Court applied the settled principle that a dealer cannot await the final assessment to determine the tax payable where the return already discloses the turnover and the statutory claim fails for want of the prescribed form. As the obligation is to pay tax on the basis of the return when filed, subjective expectation or belief cannot postpone the statutory liability to interest.

Conclusion: No, legitimate expectation, bona fide belief, or hope cannot avoid interest liability, and the relevant stage for determining liability under section 8(1) is the return stage.

Final Conclusion: In cases where exemption or concession is claimed subject to filing a prescribed declaration form, failure to furnish the form makes the normal-rate tax the admitted tax and interest runs from the return due date until payment.

Ratio Decidendi: When tax liability depends on a statutory declaration form supporting a concession or exemption claim, failure to furnish that form means the dealer must pay tax at the normal rate as admitted tax, and delayed payment attracts interest from the return due date without any defence of bona fide belief or legitimate expectation.

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