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2019 (4) TMI 953
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....by the ld. Assessing Officer u/s 271AAB of the IT Act, 1961. 3. That the appellant craves the permission to add to or amend to any of the above grounds of appeal or to withdraw any of them." Ground No. 1 is regarding validity of initiation of penalty proceedings under section 271AAB of the IT Act for want of specifying the default as per clause (a) to (c) of section 271AAB(1) of the IT Act. 2. The assessee is an individual deriving income from house property and income from other sources besides profit from partnership firm. A search and seizure action under section 132(1) of the I.T. Act was carried out on 15th October, 2014 in case of Surana group, Jaipur in which the case of assessee was also covered. In the course of search and seizure action, certain documents were found and seized marked as Annexure-2 of Exhibit-2 containing the entries of advances for land. In the statement recorded under section 132(4) of the Act the assessee offered an additional income of Rs. 7,02,00,000/- as recorded in the seized document. The assessee filed his return of income under section 139(1) on 30th September, 2015 declaring total income of Rs. 8,12,64,560/- including the amount of Rs. ....
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....use notice issued by the AO as well as to file the cogent reply to the same. In the absence of any grounds specified in the show cause notice as well as any amount to be treated as undisclosed income of the assessee for the purpose of levy of penalty under section 271AAB, the initiation of penalty is not valid and, therefore, the consequential order passed under section 271AAB of the Act is also liable to be quashed. In support of his contention, he has relied upon the following decisions :- CIT vs. Manjunatha Cotton & Ginning Factory 359 ITR 565 (Karnataka) Muninaga Reddy vs. ACIT 396 ITR 398 (Karnataka) CIT vs. SSA's Emerald Meadows 73 taxmann.com 248 (SC) Ravi Mathur vs. DCIT ITA No. 969/JP/2017 dated 13.06.2018. Apart from the above decisions, the ld. A/R has also referred to a series of decisions on this point that penalty proceedings under section 271AAB is not mandatory but discretionary and the AO has to take a decision by considering the reply and explanation of the assessee and giving a finding whether the income disclosed by the assessee during the search and seizure action is undisclosed income as per the definition provided in the explanation to section ....
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....o. 122, 128 and 129 of 2017 and submitted that even otherwise if the show cause notice does not mention the section correctly it will not be invalid as the AO will get the benefit of section 292BB of the Act. The ld. D/R has also relied upon the decision of Kolkata Bench of the Tribunal in the case of DCIT vs. Amit Agarwal, 88 taxmann.com 288. 5. We have considered the rival submissions as well as the relevant material on record. During the course of search and seizure action under section 132 of the Act conducted on 15th October, 2014, the assessee disclosed income of Rs. 7,02,00,000/- in his statement made under section 132(4) of the Act. The said disclosure was made in pursuant to the entries on account of advances for land in the seized documents. The details of the undisclosed income surrendered by the assessee are as under :- Annexure/Exhibit No. Relevant Page No. Amount Particulars Ann. A-2 Exhibit No.2 1-6 6,52,00,000/- Advances for land Ann. A-2 Exhibit No.2 1-6 50,00,000/- Advances for land Total Amount 7,02,00,000/- It is pertinent to note that the disclosure of additional income in the statement recorde....
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....on 31st March, 2015. However, the assessee disclosed this amount of Rs. 10,02,00,000/- based on the entries in the diary regarding investment in real estate. The due date of filing of return of income under section 139(1) was 30th September, 2015. It is undisputed fact that the assessee is an Individual and was not maintaining regular books of account. Therefore, the transactions recorded in the pocket diary found during the course of search itself would not lead to the presumption that the assessee would not have offered this income to tax if the search is not conducted on 30th October, 2014. Further, the entries in the diary itself do no not represent the income of the assessee during the year under consideration though the assessee was required to explain the source of investment in question and that source would be the income of the assessee. It is most likely that the investment in question was made from the unaccounted income of preceding years. Hence the investment in the real estate itself would not reveal the nature of income and the source of income of the year under consideration. It is a pre-condition for invoking the provisions of section 271AAB that the asses....
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....evious year; and (B) pays the tax, together with interest, if any, in respect of the undisclosed income; (c) a sum ^51[computed at the rate of sixty per cent] of the undisclosed income of the specified previous year, if it is not covered by the provisions of clauses (a) and (b). ^52[(1A) The Assessing Officer may, notwithstanding anything contained in any other provisions of this Act, direct that, in a case where search has been initiated under section 132 on or after the date on which the Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Bill, 2016 receives the assent of the President, the assessee shall pay by way of penalty, in addition to tax, if any, payable by him,- (a) a sum computed at the rate of thirty per cent of the undisclosed income of the specified previous year, if the assessee- (i) in the course of the search, in a statement under sub-section (4) of section 132, admits the undisclosed income and specifies the manner in which such income has been derived; (ii) substantiates the manner in which the undisclosed income was derived; and (iii) on or before the specified date- (A) pays the tax, together with interest, if any, in ....
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....and would not have been found to be so had the search not been conducted.]" The section begins with the stipulation that the AO "may" direct the assessee shall pay by way of penalty if the conditions as prescribed under clauses (a) to (c) are satisfied. As per sub-section (3) of section 271AAB the provisions of section 274 and 275 as far as may be applied in relation to the penalty referred in this section which means that before imposing the penalty under sec. 271AAB, the AO has to issue a show cause notice and give a proper opportunity of hearing to the assessee. Thus the levy of penalty u/s. 271AAB is not automatic but the A.O. has to take a decision to impose the penalty after giving a proper opportunity of hearing to the assessee. It is statutory requirement that the explanation of the assessee for not fulfilling the conditions as prescribed u/s 271AAB of the Act is required to be considered by the AO and particularly whether the explanation furnished by the assessee is bonafide and non-compliance of the same is due to the reason beyond the control of the assessee. Therefore, the penalty u/s 271AAB is not a consequential act but the AO has to first initiate proceedings by i....
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....e notice issued under section 271AAB on account of mentioning wrong provision of the Act being 271(1)(c) of the Act. The Hon'ble High Court after considering the fact that the show cause notice issued by the AO though mentions section 271(1) in the caption of the said notice, however, the body of the show cause notice clearly mentions section 271AAB, which was fully comprehended by the assessee as reveals in the reply filed by the assessee against the said show cause notice. Hence the Hon'ble High Court has held as under :- " The ld. A.Rs have also challenged that the caption of the notice mentioned only Section 271 and not 271AAB. In this respect, the copy of notice has been produced by the ld. A.R. before me. It is seen that the ld. A.R is correct in observing that the section of penalty has not been correctly mentioned by the AO in the caption. However, the AO will get the benefit of section 292BB of the Income Tax Act, 1961 because firstly, the assessee has raised no objection before the AO in this regard. Secondly, last line of the notice clearly mentions section 271AAB. Thirdly, the assessee has given reply to said notice which shows that the assessee fully comprehended th....
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....words used in section 271AAB of the Act and the words used in section 158BFA(2) of the Act are identical. Hence, argued that the penalty section 271AAB of the Act penalty is not automatic and it is on the merits of each case. For ready reference, we reproduce hereunder section 158BFA (2) of the Act and section 271AAB of the Act which reads as under; 271AAB [Penalty where search has been initiated]: (1) The Assessing Officer may, notwithstanding anything contained in any other provisions of this Act, direct that, in a case where search has been initiated under section 132 on or after the 1 st day of July, 2012, the assessee shall pay by way of penalty, in addition to tax, if any, payable by him- (a) a sum computed at the rate of ten per cent of the undisclosed income of the specified previous year, if such assessee- (i) in the course of search, in a statement under sub-section (4) of section 132, admits the undisclosed income and specifies the manner in which such income has been derived. (ii) Substantiates the manner in which the undisclosed income was derived; and (iii) On or before the specified date- (A) pays the tax, together with in....
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....mount of undisclosed income shown in the return. 6. Careful reading of section 271AAB of the Act, the words used are 'AO may direct' and 'the assessee shall pay by way of penalty'. Similar words are used section 158BFA(2) of the Act. The word may direct indicates the discretion to the AO. Further, sub section (3) of section 271AAB of the Act, fortifies this view. Sub section (3) of section 271AAB: The provisions of section 274 and 275 shall, as far as may be, apply in relation to the penalty referred to in this section. 7. The legislature has included the provisions of section 274 and section 275 of the Act in 271AAB of the Act with clear intention to consider the imposition of penalty judicially. Section 274 deals with the procedure for levy of penalty, wherein, it directs that no order imposing penalty shall be made unless the assessee has been heard or has been given a reasonable opportunity of being heard. Therefore, from plain reading of section 271AAB of the Act, it is evident that the penalty cannot be imposed unless the assessee is given a reasonable opportunity and assessee is being heard. Once the opportunity is given to the assessee, the penalty cannot be ....
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.... as provided in the explanation to section 271AAB of the Act. 5.1. The second limb of challenging the validity of initiation of penalty proceedings for not specifying the ground and default in the show cause notice issued under section 274 has been considered by the Coordinate Bench of this Tribunal in the case of Ravi Mathur vs. DCIT (supra) in para in para 7 as under :- "7. As regards the validity of notice under section 274 for want of specifying the ground and default, we find that when the basic condition of the undisclosed income not recorded in the books of accounts does not exists, then the same has to be specified by the AO in the show cause notice and further the AO is required to give a finding while imposing the penalty under section 271AAB. Even if the AO is satisfied and come to the conclusion that the assessee has not recorded the undisclosed income in the books of accounts or in the other documents / record maintained in normal course relating to specified previous year, the show cause notice shall also specify the default committed by the assessee to attract the penalty @ 10% or 20% or 30% of the undisclosed income. There is no dispute that the AO has not spe....
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....t taking into consideration the assessment order when the assessing officer has specified that the assessee has concealed particulars of income? 3. The Tribunal has allowed the appeal filed by the assessee holding the notice issued by the Assessing Officer under Section 274 read with Section 271(1)(c) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (for short 'the Act') to be bad in law as it did not specify which limb of Section 271(1)(c) of the Act, the penalty proceedings had been initiated i.e., whether for concealment of particulars of income or furnishing of inaccurate particulars of income. The Tribunal, while allowing the appeal of the assessee, has relied on the decision of the Division Bench of this Court rendered in the case of CIT vs. Manjunatha Cotton and Ginning Factory (2013) 359 ITR 565. 4. In our view, since the matter is covered by judgment of the Division Bench of this Court, we are of the opinion, no substantial question of law arises in this appeal for determination by this Court. The appeal is accordingly dismissed''. In the earlier case of Manjunatha Cotton and Ginning Factory (supra) their lordship had observed as under:- ''Notice under secti....
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....e penalty was proposed to be levied. For ready reference we reproduce the show cause notices issued by the AO under section 274 read with section 271AAB on 22th December, 2016 and 15th May, 2017 as under :- NOTICE UNDER SECTION 274 READ WITH SECTION 271 READ WITH SECTION 271AAB OF THE INCOME TAX ACT, 1961. Dated : 22.12.2016. To, Name Shri Ram Das Sonkia Address Pitaliyon Ka Chowk, Johari Bazar, Jaipur. PAN AJTPS 9679 M Whereas in the course of assessment proceedings for the AY 2015-16 penalty proceedings were initiated u/s 274 and 275 read with the section u/s 271AAB of the IT Act and a penalty notice was issued accordingly. You are hereby allowed further opportunity of being heard and to show cause why an order imposing penalty on you should not be made u/s 271AAB of the Income Tax Act 1961. If you do not wish to avail yourself of this opportunity of being heard in person or through Authorized Representative, you may show cause in writing on or before the date fixed for hearing on 11.01.2017 at 11.00 AM which will be considered before any such order (s) is/are made. Sd/- ( Kamlesh Kumar Meena ) Dy. Commissioner of Income-tax, Central Circle-....
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....finition provided in the explanation to section 271AAB(1) of the Act. He has further submitted that when the levy of penalty is not mandatory but to be imposed on merits of each case, then the AO is duty bound to first hold that the income disclosed by the assessee is undisclosed income as per the provisions of section 271AAB and then take a decision of imposing the penalty. He has referred to the relevant disclosure made by the assessee in the statement recorded under section 132(4) and submitted that it is a clear case of obtaining the disclosure from the assessee without any incriminating material disclosing any undisclosed income. The alleged seized material of Annexure A-2 Exhibit No. 2 are nothing but containing some imaginary names and details and some figures which were specifically stated by the assessee in his statement. The ld. A/R has thus contended that the said seized documents are nothing but dumb and deaf papers without indicating any undisclosed income of the assessee. The assessee has surrendered the income just to buy peace and avoid unnecessary litigation, however, there is no iota of evidence that the surrendered income was undisclosed income of the assessee. A....
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....O has made any enquiry or investigation regarding the entries made in the seized papers. The surrender of the said income by the assessee was just to buy peace as it is evident from the statement recorded under section 132(4) of the Act. The said entries in the pocket diary giving advances itself is not an undisclosed income but due to undue pressure exerted by the revenue authorities to obtain the surrender, the assessee has made the surrender of the said income. 7. Alternatively, the ld. A/R has further submitted that since the assessee is an individual and not doing any business, therefore, the assessee is not required to maintain regular books of account as per the provisions of section 44AB of the Act. From the assessment order it is clear that the assessee has maintained a separate diary for the income surrendered during the course of search. The diary was also maintaining as books of account. In this diary all the entries are for the current financial year i.e. from 01.04.2014 to the date of search i.e. 15.10.2014. Nothing adverse was found which suggest that the assessee's income was not disclosed in the income recorded in the seized documents. Therefore, there is no ....
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....erwise, these entries itself are not having any element of income but these are all expenditure entries and, therefore until and unless the full particulars of the land or the asset against which the advances were given is identified along with the persons to whom the advances were given, it would not be regarded as representing the undisclosed income of the assessee. Further, the advances given in the month of May, 2014 may not necessarily be representing the undisclosed income of the year under consideration. Neither any other document like agreement to purchase and sale of land or receipt to indicate the real transaction entered into by the assessee with the persons whose names are recorded in the seized material are either found or brought on record by the AO. The existence of the asset being land for which the alleged advances were given is essential to establish that the assessee has actually entered into these transactions and paid the advances. In the absence of such fact or the land for which the advances were given or the full particulars of the persons to show that the names appearing in the seized documents are real existing persons, these entries in the seized docum....
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....ansactions found in the course of a search under section 132", what perhaps has been envisaged by the legislature is an inflow of funds in the hands of the assessee which has been found by way of any entry in the books of accounts or other documents, and which has not been recorded before the date of search in the books of accounts or other documents maintained by the assessee in the normal course and not vice-versa. We are also conscious of the fact that there are deeming provisions in terms of section 69 and 69B wherein such amounts may be deemed as income in absence of satisfactory explanation. In our view, the deeming fiction so envisaged under Section 69 and Section 69B cannot be extended and applied automatically in context of section 271AAB. It is a well-settled legal proposition that the deeming provisions are limited for the purposes that have been brought on the statute book and have therefore to be applied in the context of provisions wherein they have been brought on the statue book and not otherwise. In the instant case, the deeming provisions contained in section 69 and section 69B could have been applied in the context of bringing to tax such investments to tax in th....
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....) at page 25 as under :- "Since in the case of assessee the transactions of investment were found in the diary, therefore, whether these entries in the diary constitute undisclosed income as per clause (c)(i) of Explanation to Section 271AAB of the Act. The assessee is an Individual and for the year under consideration the assessee has not reported any business income nor it was assessed by the AO. Therefore, it is clear that the assessee was not required by any mandate of law to maintain regular books of accounts. In the computation of income, the assessee has shown income from Salary, income from house property and income from other sources. The returned income was accepted by the AO while framing the assessment under section 143(3) and hence assessee's case does not fall in the category where the regular books of accounts are mandatory. The entries of investment in real estate were found recorded in the diary and in the absence of any other document maintained in the normal course relating to the year under consideration, the entries in the diary are to be considered as recorded in the documents maintained in the normal course. It is not the case of the revenue that the asses....
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....f accounts by the assessee, the case of the assessee would not fall in the definition of undisclosed income as per clause (c) of Explanation to section 271AAB of the Act. 9. The Kolkata Bench of the Tribunal in the case of DCIT vs. Madan Lal Beswal (supra) has considered this issue of the alleged income found recorded in the other documents would fall in the definition of undisclosed income in para 3 and 4 as under :- "3. We have heard rival submissions and gone through the facts and circumstances of the case. We find that the issue involved herein is squarely covered in favour of the assessee in the case of DCIT vs Manish Agarwala (another member in the same Nezone Group) in ITA No. 1479/Kol/2015 for AY 2013-14 dated 9.2.2018 by the order of this tribunal , wherein it was held as under:- 3. We have heard rival submissions and gone through the facts and circumstances of the case. We note that the AO has levied the penalty u/s. 271AAB on the ground that the income from commodity profit has been found during search u/s.132 of the Act which is not reflected in the regular books of account. The AO has accepted that during search the assessee has admitted u/s. 132(4....
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.... adjudicating a case where penalty was levied under section 271AAB of the Act it was held that the provisions of Sec. 271AAB of the Act are not mandatory, which means that penalty need not be levied in each and every case wherever the assessee has made default as stated in clauses (a), (b) and (c) of the Act. Sub-section (1) of Sec. 271AAB of the Act uses the word "may" not "shall". "May" cannot be equated with "shall" especially in penalty proceeding. Using the word "may" in our opinion, gives a discretion to the AO to levy the penalty or not to levy, even if the assessee has made the default under the said provision." Therefore, the 2nd ground of Revenue fails and we hold that penalty u/s. 271AAB of the Act is not mandatory and is discretionary. Before proceeding further, we note that the ex parte order passed by the Coordinate Bench relied upon by Ld. DR, Manoj Beswal, supra, have been recalled in MA Nos. 218 to 220/Kol/2017 dated 12.01.2018 by observing as under: "By virtue of these miscellaneous applications, the assessee seeks to recall the order passed by this Tribunal in I.T.A. Nos. 1471, 1475&1476/Kol/2015 in the hands of Amit Agarwal, Madan Lal Beswal and Manoj Beswal ....
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....der which has been recalled for de novo adjudication, is no order in the eyes of law and so it cannot be treated as a precedent. Hence, the reliance placed by the Ld. DR in respect of assessee's in the same group concern cases as decided by the Tribunal no longer survives and cannot be treated as covered against the assessee. 5. The third contention of the Ld. AR is that the assessee is an individual, who was drawing salary income. So, according to him, he need not maintain any books of account as per the Act. According to Ld. AR, undisputedly the assessee was engaged for the first time this AY only in trading of commodities, that too which was conducted in a nonsystematic manner and the income from it was duly offered to tax by the assessee in his return of income under the head "Income from Other Sources", which, according to Ld. AR was accepted as such by the AO and drew our attention to page one of assessment order, (not the penalty order) wherein we note that the AO has acknowledged that the assessee owned up Rs. 3 cr. as his income from commodity profit and it has been disclosed in his income and expenditure for AY 2013-14 under the head "income out of speculative business....
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....lower than the profits or gains so deemed to be the profits and gains of his business, as the case may be, during such [previous year; or]] (iv) where the profits and gains from the business are deemed to be the profits and gains of the assessee under section 44AD and he has claimed such income to be lower than the profits and gains so deemed to be the profits and gains of his business and his income exceeds the maximum amount which is not chargeable to incometax during such previous year,] keep and maintain such books of account and other documents as may enable the [Assessing] Officer to compute his total income in accordance with the provisions of this Act. (3) The Board may, having regard to the nature of the business or profession carried on by any class of persons, prescribe, by rules, the books of account and other documents (including inventories, wherever necessary) to be kept and maintained under sub-section (1) or sub-section (2), the particulars to be contained therein and the form and the manner in which and the place at which they shall be kept and maintained. (4) Without prejudice to the provisions of sub-section (3), the Board may prescribe, by rul....
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....wn in Income & Expenditure Account. All the incomes of revenue nature will be posted in the right hand side column of 'income' in the Income & Expenditure Account and the description given therein cannot determine the head of income prescribed under chapter IV of the Act. Therefore, the observation of the AO in assessment order in the light of his action of accepting the statement of total income filed by the assessee along with return which without being contested, is erroneous, unless the AO was able to negate the claim of the assessee by bringing the income from commodity transactions as part of business income. It should be remembered that under the Income Tax Act 1961, the total income of an assessee individual/company is chargeable to tax u/s. 4 of the Act. The total income has to be computed in accordance with the provisions of the Act. Section 14 of the Act lays down that for the purpose of computation, income of an assessee has to be classified under five heads. It is possible for an assessee/individual/company to have five different sources of income, each one of it will be chargeable to Income Tax Act. Profits and gains of business or profession is only one of the heads ....
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....e and expenditure of the assessee. We note the AO in the assessment order has accepted the returned income comprising of income from salary and income from other sources by observing as under : "Total income assessed as per return Rs. 3,44,65,120/-". And further we note that the AO had specifically stated in the body of the assessment order vide column no. 10 that the assessee is having only salary income and income from other sources. Thus from a perusal of the assessment order, it is not in dispute that assessee is not engaged in any business. And the AO cannot change the character of income in a derivative proceeding which is an off-shoot of assessment proceedings i.e. the penalty proceedings without contesting and making a finding against the claim of the assessee in the assessment order as discussed above. 7. Finally, the Ld. AR submitted that during the search, the search party found the records of the assessee's transactions in speculative commodity from the drawer of assessee's accountant from which the AO could compute the income of the assessee from the said transaction which amount assessee declared during search and which was duly returned and which figure was ....
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....(c) (supra) which describes undisclosed income for the purposes of this section which is very important to adjudicate this issue. Therefore, the question is when the search took place, the assessee's transactions (in this case, the speculative transaction) has been found to be recorded in the "other documents" which is (retrieved from the assessee's accountant's drawer) and based on that the assessee declared Rs. 3 cr. during search and later returned income of Rs. 3 cr. as income under the head "Income from Other Sources" which was accepted by the AO in toto. We note that since the income under question (Rs. 3 cr.) was in fact entered in the "other documents" maintained in the normal course relating to the AY 2013-14, which document was retrieved during search, hence, the amount of Rs. 3 cr. offered by the assessee does not fall in the ken of "undisclosed income" defined in Sec. 271AAB of the Act. So, Rs. 3 cr. which was commodity profit recorded in the other document maintained by the assessee which was retrieved during search cannot be termed as "undisclosed Income" in the definition given u/s. 271AAB of the Act. Since Rs. 3 cr. cannot be termed as "Undisclosed Income" as per se....