Interest on delayed VAT compensatory, therefore treated as deductible business expenditure under section 37(1) per precedent.

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....Interest paid on delayed VAT was examined under the principle that business expenses must be incurred wholly and exclusively for business. Applying the precedent that interest on sales-tax arrears is compensatory rather than penal, the article concludes the assessing authorities erred in disallowing such interest; accordingly the interest debited in the profit and loss account should be allowed as a deductible business expenditure under section 37(1). The operative effect is allowance of the claimed deduction following the compensatory-interest characterisation.....