https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=752384 The ITAT Rajkot held that penalty under section 271B for non-audit of accounts cannot be imposed when books of accounts were not maintained within the due date for filing income tax returns. The tribunal ruled that failure to maintain books under section 44AA constitutes a complete standalone offense, making audit under section 44AB impossible. Since the primary default was non-maintenance of books, penalty under section 271B was deemed erroneous. The department failed to provide evidence that books were written up before the due date, resulting in a decision favoring the assessee. en-us Wed, 17 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0530 Thu, 09 May 2024 10:47:00 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=752384 The ITAT Rajkot held that penalty under section 271B for non-audit of accounts cannot be imposed when books of accounts were not maintained within the due date for filing income tax returns. The tribunal ruled that failure to maintain books under section 44AA constitutes a complete standalone offense, making audit under section 44AB impossible. Since the primary default was non-maintenance of books, penalty under section 271B was deemed erroneous. The department failed to provide evidence that books were written up before the due date, resulting in a decision favoring the assessee. Case-Laws Income Tax Wed, 17 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=752384