Reasonable cause shields tax audit default where consistent treatment of bank interest supported bona fide belief.

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

Full Text of the Document

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

....Penalty for failure to furnish a tax audit report was deleted where consistent past and subsequent treatment of bank interest as income from other sources supported a bona fide belief that the audit requirement was not attracted. The assessee had disclosed the interest uniformly in earlier and later years, and that treatment had been accepted in section 143(1) intimations. As the Revenue produced no material of deliberate or conscious default, the failure was treated as covered by reasonable cause, making the penalty unsustainable.....