Investment treatment of share transactions upheld, with profits taxed as capital gains rather than business income.

Frequent and voluminous share and unit transactions were assessed as capital gains because the assessee consistently treated them as investment activity, the facts were unchanged from the earlier year, and no contrary material showed dealer status. The Tribunal followed its own prior decision in the assessee's case, found no distinguishing feature or reason to depart from that view, and held that the resulting profit remained capital in nature rather than business income.

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Issues: Whether the profit arising from frequent and voluminous purchase and sale of shares and units was assessable as capital gains or as business income.

Analysis: The assessee had consistently shown the share and unit transactions as investment activity, and the issue had already been decided in the assessee's own case for an earlier assessment year on the same facts. The Tribunal found no material change in facts, no distinguishing feature, and no basis to depart from the earlier view. In the absence of any contrary material or reason to treat the assessee as a dealer in shares, the earlier conclusion that such income was capital in nature was followed.

Conclusion: The profit from sale and purchase of shares and units was rightly assessable as capital gains and not business income.

Ratio Decidendi: Where share transactions are undertaken as investments on own funds and the facts remain unchanged from an earlier year, the resulting profit is to be assessed as capital gains and not as business income.

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