AI OCR 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (12) TMI 1025
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.... 2010-11; they got registered themselves in individual capacity from 1st February, 2012 and started paying service tax; it appeared to the Revenue that the appellants constitute a joint family and as such, exemption cannot be extended to individuals separately and all the four appellants are required to pay service tax jointly and severally on the remuneration received by them; a show cause notice dated 18.10.2012 was issued to the appellants demanding service tax of Rs.16,11,094/-; the proposals in the show cause notice were confirmed vide Order-in-Original dated 01.07.2013 along with imposition of penalties under Sections 77 and 78; the original authority, however, refrained from imposing penalty under Section 76. On an appeal filed by the appellants, learned Commissioner (Appeals) vide impugned order dated 18.12.2013 has upheld the order of the lower authority. Hence, these appeals. 2. Ms. Kashish Sahini, learned Counsel for the appellants, submits that the issue is no longer res integra and the Principal bench of the Tribunal in the case of M/s Sidhi Vinayak Associates vide Final Order No.58760/2024 dated 01.10.2024 and Ahmedabad Bench of the Tribunal in the case of Shri Kamle....
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....ame, whether registered or not, of another person; or (ii) such value of taxable services in respect of which Service Tax shall be paid by such person and in such manner as specified under sub-section (2) of section 68 of the said Finance Act read with Service Tax Rules, 1994. 2. The exemption contained in this notification shall apply subject to the following conditions, namely :- (i) the provider of taxable service has the option not to avail the exemption contained in this notification and pay Service Tax on the taxable services provided by him and such option, once exercised in a financial year, shall not be withdrawn during the remaining part of such financial year; (ii) the provider of taxable service shall not avail the Cenvat credit of Service Tax paid on any input services, under rule 3 or rule 13 of the Cenvat Credit Rules, 2004 (hereinafter referred to as the said rules), used for providing the said taxable service, for which exemption from payment of Service Tax under this notification is availed of; (iii) the provider of taxable service shall not avail the Cenvat credit under rule 3 of the said rules, on capital goods received in the premises of provider of s....
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....ied services for the purpose of indicating, or so as to indicate a connection in the course of trade between such specified services and some person using such name or mark with or without any indication of the identity of that person; (B) "aggregate value not exceeding four lakh rupees" means the sum total of first consecutive payments received during a financial year towards the gross amount, as prescribed under section 67 of the said Finance Act, charged by the service provider towards taxable services till the aggregate amount of such payments is equal to four lakh rupees but does not include payments received towards such gross amount which are exempt from whole of Service Tax leviable thereon under section 66 of the said Finance Act under any other notification. 4. This notification shall come into force on the 1st day of April, 2005." 7. The basis of allegation by the Revenue against the Appellants rests on the premise that even though the immovable property is jointly owned by several persons, since the property itself is indivisible, and each person cannot separately render the service without involvement of other co-owners, hence the total rent received as a whole, ....
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.... 1924, the words of Section 3 were "individual, company, firm and Hindu undivided family." By the Indian Income-tax (Amendment) Act of 1924 (XI of 1924) the words "individual, Hindu undivided family, company, firm and other association of individuals" were substituted for the former words. By the Income-tax Amendment Act of 1939 (VII of 1939) the Section was again amended and it then said : "Where any Act of the Central Legislature enacts that income-tax shall be charged for any year at any rate or rates, tax at the rate or those rates shall be charged for that year in accordance with, and subject to the provisions of, this Act in respect of the total income of the previous year of every individual, Hindu undivided family, company and local authority, and of every firm and other association of persons or the partners of the firm or members of the association individually." By the same Amending Act (VII of 1939), sub-section (3) of Section 9 was also added. Now, Section 3 imposes a tax "in respect of the total income.... of every individual, Hindu undivided family, company and local authority, and of every firm and other association of persons or the partners of the firm or ....
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.... difficulty arises whatever in the way of saying that these persons did constitute an association..." We think that the aforesaid decisions correctly lay down the crucial test for determining what is an association of persons within the meaning of Section 3 of the Income-tax Act, and they have been accepted and followed in a number of later decisions of different High Courts to all of which it is unnecessary to call attention. It is, however, necessary to add some words of caution here. There is no formula of universal application as to what facts, how many of them and of what nature, are necessary to come to a conclusion that there is an association of persons within the meaning of Section 3; it must depend on the particular facts and circumstances of each case as to whether the conclusion can be drawn or not. Learned Counsel for the appellant has suggested that having regard to Sections 3 and 4 of the Indian Income-tax Act, the real test is the existence of a common source of income in which two or more persons are interested as owner or otherwise and it is immaterial whether their shares are specific and definite or whether there is any scheme of management or not. He has ....