2025 (8) TMI 1496

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....PC, Benguluru u/s 143(1) dated 31.03.2023, disallowing the claim for exemption u/s 12A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 for non-filing of the audit report in Form No. 10B within the stipulated time frame of at least one month prior to the due date for furnishing the return u/s 139(1). 2. Grounds of appeal taken by the Revenue are as under: "1. That the ld. CIT(A) has erred in fact in allowing relief to the assessee on the basis of timely filing of Audit report whereas the assessee has e-filed its Audit report in Form 10B belatedly after the extended due date of October 7, 2022." 3. The facts of the case are that that assessee trust was incorporated on 30.07.1993 as an Educational Trust and was registered u/s 12A sub-Section (1) of....

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.... claim of the appellant is therefore allowed and the AO is directed to allow claim of appellant under section 12A of the Income Tax Act." 6. The Revenue challenged the said order on the grounds contained in the Memorandum of Appeal. In course of hearing, the ld. DR submitted that in the instant case, the audit report in Form 10AB might have been uploaded by the Auditor on 26.09.2022 but the said audit report has been accepted (approved) by the assessee on 21.10.2022, as evident from the acknowledgement receipt no. 742744500211022 which according to him is less than the stipulated the time frame as prescribed by the CBDT Circular No. 19/2022 dated 30.09.2022 which has extended the due date for furnishing of audit reports till 7th October,....

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....we find that the tax-audit report was uploaded and verified by the auditor on 26.09.2022 which has been accepted by the assessee on 21.10.2022 (as per the acknowledgement) and thereafter the return has been filed which again was filed within the time u/s 139(1), within the extended period of 07.11.2022. On this issue, we refer to the judgment of the Hon'ble Gujarat High Court in the case of Association of Indian Penal Board Manufacturers v. DCIT in Appeal No. 655 of 2022 where it has been observed as follows: "6. The moot aspect thus centres around to the requirement of the availability of the audit report when the assessment was undertaken by the Assessing Officer even though the same may not have been filed along with the return ....

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.... part at Para 5, 6 & 7 observed as under: 1. In my considered view non-filing of Audit Report in Form 10B along with Return of Income is merely a procedural defect which is rectifiable. If the Audit Report was available with the assessee at the time of filing of Return of Income and was not filed due to bonafide reasons the benefit of exemption under section 11 cannot be denied if otherwise assessee is eligible to claim the same. 11. The Hon'ble Bombay High Court in the case of CIT vs. Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Iron & Steel Market Committee(supra) has held that late filing of required documents would not dis-entitle the assessee from availing benefit of section 11 of the Act. Thus, in the facts of the case and in the light of....