2016 (7) TMI 1604 - AT - Income Tax

Tax deducted on the service charges paid for the services provided by Visa/Mastercard International - payment was not an expenditure in the hands of the assessee and had not been incurred for the purpose of the assessee s business and consequently, the TDS paid was not an allowable deduction - HELD THAT - In the course of assessment proceedings, the Assessing Officer noticed that assessee had paid tax in respect of the charges for services provided by Visa/Mastercard International on the ground that such an expenditure was borne out of contractual obligation. The claim of the assessee was that in terms of the agreement with Visa/Mastercard International, assessee was required to bear the tax liability on payment made by assessee to such companies and, therefore, during the year under consideration an amount was claimed as business expenditure on this count. The Assessing Officer, however, disallowed the expenditure on the basis of his stand in the earlier years. CIT(A) noticed that the Tribunal in the assessee s own case for 2012 (7) TMI 155 - ITAT, MUMBAI , 2012 (9) TMI 1065 - ITAT MUMBAI and 2013 (5) TMI 532 - ITAT MUMBAI has deleted such addition and following the aforesaid precedents, he has since deleted the addition in the instant year also. A common point between the parties that the precedents relied upon by CIT(A) in order to delete the addition continue to hold the field and they have not been altered by any higher authority. As a consequence, in view of the aforesaid precedents, there is no error on the part of CIT(A) in deleting the addition, which we hereby affirm. In the result, appeal of the Revenue for Assessment dismissed.

Summary

Issues involved:
- Tax deduction on service charges paid to Visa/Mastercard International
- Allowability of TDS paid as a deduction

Analysis:
1. Tax deduction on service charges paid to Visa/Mastercard International:
The appeals by the Revenue for Assessment Years 2010-11 & 2011-12 were clubbed together due to a common issue. The Revenue challenged the CIT(A)'s decision to allow tax deduction on service charges paid to Visa/Mastercard International. The respondent-assessee, engaged in credit card operations, claimed the tax liability on payments to Visa/Mastercard International as a business expenditure. The Assessing Officer disallowed the expenditure, but the CIT(A) relied on previous Tribunal decisions in the assessee's favor. The Tribunal affirmed the CIT(A)'s decision based on the precedents, leading to the dismissal of the Revenue's appeal for Assessment Year 2010-11.

2. Allowability of TDS paid as a deduction:
Regarding the Assessment Year 2011-12, the issue and circumstances mirrored those of the previous year. The Tribunal applied its decision on the 2010-11 appeal mutatis mutandis to the 2011-12 appeal, resulting in the dismissal of both appeals by the Revenue. The Tribunal's order emphasized the consistency in decisions across the years and upheld the deletion of the addition based on the precedents cited. Consequently, the appeals by the Revenue for both years were dismissed, affirming the CIT(A)'s decision on the allowability of the tax deducted at source as a deduction.