TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (10) TMI 1389
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....etween the appellant trust and counsels. It was also submitted that the inclement health conditions of the Managing Trustee also contributed to the said delay. All these activities contributed to the delay which was neither willful nor wanton. The assessee submitted that there will not be case of any noncompliance now. We have considered the justification put forth by the assessee and we are satisfied with their adequacy. We are also conscious of the fact that no litigant gains by intentionally delaying its own matters. The Ld. DR did not pose any serious objections to the delay. Accordingly, we hereby condone the delay and proceed to adjudicate this appeal. 3.0 The only issue contested by the appellant assessee, through its grounds of appeal, is the rejection of its application for grant of exemption u/s 80G by the Ld. CIT(E). The application of the assessee was rejected for having been filed late i.e beyond the timeline, including extended timeline, prescribed by the Revenue authorities. 4.0 It is the case of the appellant that the delay cannot come in the way of its eligibility for grant of exemption u/s 80G. The Ld. Counsel for the assessee submitted that it was granted p....
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....ng timely applications and thus being deprived of registration on such technical deficiencies. Registrations under section 12A and 80G are closely inter-linked and or rather supplementing their independent objectives. The present issue is also one of genuine hardships and therefore there cannot be a distinction within the same provision without bringing any exception. The provisions of 80G are for the benefit of donors who are donating amounts of money to Charitable Trusts, engaged in selfless public service, for claiming exemption in the Returns of Income. We have noted that this issue has been extensively dealt by a Hon'ble Coordinate bench of this tribunal in the case of CIT1982 Charitable Trust as at 160 taxmann.com 475 " ........ 7. We have heard rival contentions and gone through the facts and circumstances of the case. First of all, it is to be noted that the assessee trust has commenced its activities on 14.07.2017 and assessee is also provisionally approval u/s. 80G(5)(iv) of the Act. The assessee trust was required to file application in Form No.10AB u/s. 80G(5)(iii) of the Act within the time period of six months prior to expiry of the period of provisional appr....
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....) of sub-section (1) of section 12A of the Act, inserting section 12AB of the Act and amending the first and second proviso to subsection (5) of section 80G of the Act. The amended provisions provide for the following: (a) All the existing trusts were required to apply for registration/approval on or before 30.06.2021. However, on consideration of difficulties in the electronic filing of Form No. 10A, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (the Board) in exercise of the powers conferred upon it under Section 119 of the Act extended the due date for filing Form No. 10A in such cases to 31.08.2021 vide Circular No.12 of 2021 dated 25 .06.2021, to 3 1.03.2022 vide Circular No. 16 of 2021 dated 29.08.2021 and further till 25.11.22 vide Circular No. 22 of 2022 dated 01.11.2022. Such registration/approval shall be valid for a period of 5 years. Thus, existing trusts are required to apply for fresh registration/approval and once the registration/approval is granted it is valid for five years. (b) New trusts are required to apply for provisional registration/approval at least one month prior to the commencement of the previous year relevant to the assessment year from which th....
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....yed. As mentioned in para 1(a) above, the last date for filing an application by the existing trusts seeking registration/ approval was extended to 25.11.2022 vide Circular No. 22 of 2022 dated 01.11.2022. Further, as stated in 1 (c) above, the due date for furnishing application for registration/approval by the provisionally registered/ approved trusts was extended till 30.09.2022. These trusts shall be subject to tax under section 115TD of the Act in accordance with the provisions of the said section, as amended by the Finance Act, 2023 if the application is not made by 25.11.2022 or 30.09.2022, as the case may be. 5. In order to mitigate genuine hardship in such cases, the Board, in the exercise of the power under section 119 of the Act, extends the due date of making an application in,- (i) Form No.10A, in case of an application under clause (i) of the first proviso to clause (23C) of section 10 or under sub-clause (i) of clause (ac) of sub-section (1) of section 12A or under clause (i) of the first proviso to sub-section (5) of section 80G of the Act, till 30.09.2023 where the due date for making such application has expired prior to such date; (ii) ....
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....roval, the relevant functionality on the e-filing portal may be used for surrendering the Form No. 10A seeking provisional registration/approval and such trusts can make a new application in Form No. 10A for registration/ approval within the extended period up to 30.09.2023, as mentioned in paragraph 5(i). 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 under a 16 digit Unique Registration Number (URN), the new regime was introduced for new as well as to existing charitable institutions. Due to change in law, a new clause (ac) has been inserted in sub-section (1) of section 12A w.e.f. 01.04.2021 which states that notwithstanding anything contained in clauses (a) to (ab), the person in receipt of the income who wants to claim benefit of section 11 & 12 is to made an application in the prescribed form 10A or 10AB and in pr....
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....der 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 trust u/s.12A of the Act in Form No.10AD under the new regime vide order dated 13.09.2023 but rejected assessee's application filed in Form No.10AB u/s.80G of the Act dated 17.03.2023 vide order dated 25.09.2023 as the application is a belated one. 7.5 We have considered the case laws of Co-ordinate Bench of Jaipur Tribunal in the case of Go Gram Eco Foundation, supra and noted that the Jaipur Bench has considered this issue of delay in application....
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.... 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) of the Act rejected by CIT(Exemption) relating to assessment years 2016-17, 2017-18 & 2018-19. The assessee's application was dated 11.02.2019 under the old regime. The new regime of taxation of charitable trusts / institutions started w.e.f. 01.04.2021 and hence, reliance placed by Revenue on the Co-ordinate Bench decision of Kolkata Tribunal in the case of Bishnupur Public Education Institute, supra is not at all relevant and even the case law of Hon'ble High Court of Madras and the Hon'ble High Court of Andhra Pradesh are also relating to taxation of old regime prior to 01.04.2021. Hence, these are clearly distinguishable on facts and hence, not applicable. In term of the above, we now go through the factual aspect.....
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....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 timeline prescribed for filing Form No.10AB for recognition u/s.12A of the Act has been extended up to 30.09.2023, the same may be treated as extended for forms namely Form No.10AB for renewal of approval/recognition/registration under clause (iii) of first proviso to section 80G of the Act also. Hence, we accept the plea of assessee and agree with the arguments of ld. counsel for the assessee and remand the matter back to the file of the CIT(Exemption) to decide the issue on merits. Hence, the order of CIT(Exemption) on this issue is set aside and matter is remanded back to the file of the CIT(Exemption) for re-deciding the issue on merits as per law. The appeal of the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes. 8. Now coming to the case of CIT-1982 Charitable Trust vs. ITO in ITANo. 827/CHNY/2023, the trust was incorporated on 24.03.2021 and assessee filed application for obtaining provisional registration u/....
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....rm No.10AB by renewing under the new regime on 25.11.2022 and assessee was granted final registration u/s.12A of the Act by issuing Form No.10AD on 29.05.2023. The assessee filed application for obtaining final registration u/s.80G of the Act in Form No.10AB by renewing the provisional registration under the new regime vide application dated 24.11.2022. The final registration was rejected by CIT(Exemption) u/s.80G of the Act vide letter dated 30.05.2023 for the reason that the application is belated one. The ld. counsel for the assessee adopted the same argument as in the case of CIT-1982 Charitable Trust in ITA No. 1136/CHNY/2023. 10. The ld. CIT-DR stated that the extended date as extended by CBDT is 30.09.2022 is applicable in this case. But assessee filed belated application in Form No.10AB on 24.11.2022 and hence, the CIT(Exemption) has rightly rejected the same. 11. We noted that the facts and circumstances are exactly identical to the case of CIT-1982 Charitable Trust in ITA No. 1136/CHNY/2023, dealt above and facts being identical, we set aside the order of CIT(Exemption) on the same reason and remand the matter back to the file of the CIT(Exemption) for d....