Year-end estimated expenditure provisions, where invoices,...

Year-end estimated expenditure provisions, where invoices, precise liabilities and payees remain unascertained, do not amount to credit of an ascertainable sum to an identified payee under the mercantile system. Tax-deduction obligations therefore arise only when liabilities crystallise, with tax deducted where applicable upon receipt of invoices; reversal of the provisions in the succeeding year supports that treatment. A demand for tax-deduction default cannot be sustained merely on creation of such provisions. Further, where the same non-deduction has already led to disallowance of expenditure, it cannot also support a tax-deduction default demand; consequential interest fails with the principal demand.