Commission income in self-declared returns can support service tax demand when assessee's own records admit commission receipts.

Commission receipts disclosed by an assessee in its income tax returns and profit and loss account can form a valid basis for service tax liability where those records describe the assessee as a general commission agent and show commission income. Reliance on Form 26AS alone is not decisive when the demand is supported by the assessee's own self-declared financial records, and agricultural income separately disclosed is excluded from the demand. On that basis, the demand, interest and penalty are stated to be upheld and the impugned order sustained.

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Issues: Whether the commission receipts reflected in the assessee's income tax returns and profit and loss account were liable to service tax and whether the demand confirmed on that basis suffered from any legal infirmity.

Analysis: The receipts were taken from the assessee's own income tax returns and profit and loss account, in which the assessee had described itself as a general commission agent and had disclosed commission income. The agricultural income was separately shown and was not included in the demand. The reliance on Form 26AS was found to be misplaced because the demand was not founded on that document alone but on the assessee's self-declared financial records. The factual matrix was therefore held to be different from cases where demand was raised only on the basis of Form 26AS or similar third-party statements.

Conclusion: The commission income was held liable to service tax and the demand, interest, and penalty were upheld against the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The impugned order was sustained and the appeal failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an assessee's own income tax returns and profit and loss account disclose commission receipts, those admissions can form a valid basis for service tax demand, and a challenge founded solely on exclusion of Form 26AS material will not succeed when the demand is supported by the assessee's own records.

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