TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (10) TMI 693
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....the delay on the following ground. Assessee is involved in charitable activity of dealing the life of mentally weak, retarded childrens, running coaching classes for the same etc. as trustee Mr. Jignesh Vasant Raval Is the only person looking after the same. As he is the only person who is providing training and looking after all the administrative work. Moreover, few children of the trust were having very chronic attack of mental dis order and hence, accordingly trustee was stucked up in the same. Hence, I request you to condone the delay of 11 months in making the application u/s 80 G (5) (iii) of income tax act, 1961. In view of the above, it is prayed to the Hon'ble ITAT to condone the delay in making application of approval U/s 80G of Income Tax Act, 1961 the interest of natural justice and oblige so as to avoid unnecessary hard-ship against the assessee 3. The appellant craves leave to add, alter or delete any ground either before or in the course of hearing of the appeal. 3. The brief facts of the case are that the assessee filed an application u/s.80G(5) of the Act in form no.10AB on 28.08.2023. The date of registration/incorporation of the assessee trust is on 0....
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.... under clause (iii) of first proviso to of Income Tax Act, 1961 also. 4. CBDT on multiple occasions had extended the time limit in filing the application in Form 10AB under clause (iii) of first proviso to sub-section (5) of section 80G as under: Sr. No Circular no. Relaxation provided for filing application u/s 10AB for 80G up to 1. Circular No. 12 of 2021 dated 25.06.2021 Extended up to 31st August 2021 as under. The application under section 10(23C), 12AB, 35(1)(ii)/(iia)/(iii) and 80G of the Act in Form No. 10A/Form No. 10AB, for registration/provisional "(6) registration/intimation/approval/provisional approval of Trusts/Institutions/Research Associations etc. required to be made on or before 30th June, 2021, may be made on or before 31st August, 2021;" 2. Circular No. 16/2021 dated 29th August 2021 Extended up to 31st March, 2022 as under. The application for registration or approval under section 10(23C), 12A, or 80G of the Act in Form No. 10AB, for which the last date for filing falls on or before 28th February 2022 may be filed on or before 31st March, 2022 3. Circular No. 8/2022 dated Extended up to 30.09.2022 as under. 31.03.2022 1. On consideration of ....
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....y in case of all pending applications under clause (ii) of the first proviso to clause (23C) of section 10 or sub-clause (ii) of clause (ac) of sub-section (1) of section 12A of the Act, as the case may be Hence, in cases where the trust has already made an application in Form No. 10AB under the said provisions but such application has been furnished after 30.09.2022 and where the Principal Commissioner or Commissioner has not passed an order before the issuance of this Circular, the pending application in Form No 10AB may be treated as a valid application. Further, in cases where the trust had already made an application in Form No. 10AB, and where the Principal Commissioner or Commissioner has passed an order rejecting such application, on or before the issuance of this Circular, solely on account of the fact that the application was furnished after the due date, the trust may furnish a fresh application in Form No. 10AB within the extended time provided in paragraph 5(ii) ie. 30.09.2023" 4.1 From the above, it is clear that there is no change in last date for filing Form No. 10AB for approval under clause (ii) of first proviso to sub-section (5) of section 80G of the Act, whic....
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.... reply dated 04/12/2023 wherein the applicant has mentioned that the date of commencement of activities of the trust is 28.08.2023, However, the applicant has submitted its Annual account for FY 2021-22, on verification of the same it is observed that the applicant has received income from Grant income of Rs 7,25,575/- and also incurred expenses towards Service & Maintenance 5,38,000/-, Rs. 9,000 toward Training expenses respectively. Similarly in FY 2020-21 the applicant has received income from Grant income of Rs. 1,81,572/-, & in FY 2019-20 of Rs. 70,72,700. Further, it is also found that during FY 2018-19, the applicant incurred salary expenses of Rs. 4,15,000/- Decision 7. The above said facts clearly prove that the activities of the trust have commenced long back i.e. during or before FY 2018-19. In view of discussion in Para 3 and Para 4 above, the applicant was required to file application in Form 10AB in this case on or before 30/09/2022, which he has failed to submit. Therefore, the present application in Form No. 10AB u/s 80G(5) of the Act has not been filed within the time limit prescribed therein and therefore, the same is liable to be rejected as such as non maint....
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....ly observed that there is no reason to provide for a distinction within the same provision, so as to have a different timeline for accepting application for grant of final approval in respect for grant of registration in Form No. 10AB for registration under Section 12A of the Act and for grant of final registration under Section 80G(5) of the Act. The ITAT, in our view has correctly observed that there cannot be a distinction within the same provision for having different time-lines, without bringing out any exception and further, even the provisions of Section 80G are for the benefit of the donors, who are donating money to the charitable Trust for claiming exemption in their returns of income. It would be useful to reproduce their relevant extracts of the Ruling for reference: "7.2 The legislature by way of amendment introduced new regime for taxation of Trusts w.e.f. 01.04.2021 and this amendment was made with the objective that it needs improvement with the advent of technology and keeping in mind the practical issue of difficulty in obtaining registration/approval/notification before actually starting the activities. To make the process of registration completely electronic ....
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.... mode of filing of Form No.10A or 10AB, in exercise of powers conferred upon it u/s.119 of the Act, extended the due date for filing Form No.10A or 10AB up to 30.09.2022 vide Circular No.16/2021 dated 29.08.2021 and further, vide Circular No.6/2023 dated 24.05.2023 up to 30.09.2023. But the CBDT has extended this date up to 30.09.2023 in filing Form No.10A for registration u/s.12A of the Act vide paras 6 to 8 of the Circular (which is reproduced in this order at para 7.1 above). The Revenue has filed the date and events which are undisputed in this case and as admitted by Revenue that in this case, provisional registration was granted u/s.80G(5) of the Act in Form No.10A under the new regime under clause (iv) of the said provision vide dated 23.09.2021. Even the final registration was granted u/s.12A of the Act in Form No.10AD under the new regime vide dated 13.09.2023 but rejected the application for final approval applied u/s.80G of the Act in Form No.10AB vide order dated 25.09.2023 by CIT(Exemption) on the reason that the application was filed by assessee only on 17.03.2023, which is belated application. There is no dispute about the final registration granted to the assessee T....
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....for approval u/s. 80G(5) of the Act on 11.01.2023, which was treated as belated application and appropriate authority rejected the approval application filed by the assessee. But the Tribunal allowed the maintainability of application and directed the CIT(Exemption) to re-decide on merits. Hence, these decisions favors the case of the assessee and clearly applicable to the facts of present case before us. 7.7 The case law cited by the Revenue of Kolkata Tribunal in the case of Bishnupur Public Education Institute, supra wherein the Kolkata Tribunal has relied on the decision of Hon'ble High court of Madras in the case of All Angels Educational Society, supra and the Hon'ble High Court of Andhra Pradesh in the case of Aurora Educational Society vs. CCIT reported in 20 taxmann.com 46, after considering these decisions has decided the issue on the approval of application filed u/s. 10(23C)(vi) provisions) act 2020 for bringing new regime. Hence, in our view, the CIT(Exemptions) should not have rejected the assessee's application in Form No.10AB only for this technical reason. We are of the view that the intention of CBDT in its circular clearly reflects their mind that once the ti....
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....gnition/registration under clause (iii) of first proviso to section 80G also. 7. Further, we also observe that recently vide Circular No. 7/2024 dated 25.04.2024 CBDT has further extended the due date of filing Form No. 10A/10AB under the Income Tax Act till 30.06.2024, taking into consideration the difficulties reiterated by tax payers electronic filing of 10A/10AB. It would be useful to reproduce the Circular for ready reference:- Circular No. 7/2024 F. No. 173/25/2024-ITA-I Government of India Ministry of Finance Department of Revenue Central Board of Direct Taxes New Delhi, Dated 25th April, 2024 Sub: Extension of due date for filing of Form No. 10A/10AB under the Income-tax Act, 1961-reg. On consideration of difficulties reported by the taxpayers and other stakeholders in the electronic filing of Form No. 10A/10AB, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (the Board) in exercise of its powers under section 119 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (the Act) extended the due date for filing Form No. 10A to 31.08.2021 by Circular No. 1212021 dated 25.06.2021, to 31.03.2022 by Circular No.16/2021 dated 29.08.2021, to 25.11.2022 by Circular No. 22/2022 dated 01.11.2022 filing Form ....