Snehal Upadhyay-
Published on: August 18, 2021 15:09 IST
The Madras High Court on Tuesday quashed a writ petition filed by Tamil actor R S Suriya claiming waiver of interest for delayed income tax payments for the assessment years 2007-2008 and 2008-2009.
The single Bench of Justice S M Subramaniam denied the actors plea stating that he was not found cooperative enough with the concerned tax authorities when the authorities claimed the due payments.
The actor filed a writ petition in the Madras High Court in 2018, seeking a waiver of interest under Section 220 (2A) of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
The actor has complained that the concerned tax authorities had tortured and harassed him for quite some time.
In 2010, a search operation was done at his premises, after which assessment orders were passed on December 30, 2011, for the years 2007-08 and 2008-09.
The High Court stated that in order to seek a waiver of interest there are three valid essentials which are solemnized under the provisions of the IT Act and it must be fulfilled the essentials are firstly, payment of the amount demanded would cause genuine hardship to the assessee secondly, default in payment was due to circumstances beyond the assessee’s control and thirdly, the assessee has cooperated in any inquiry relating to the assessment or any proceeding for the recovery of any amount due from him.
Thereafter stating the three essentials the Court stated that the actor had failed to follow all three conditions and hence his side of the argument is not valid.
Suriya’s counsel defended that, he was not responsible for the delay and that he had cooperated with the tax authorities and the assessment proceedings and had paid the required amount of tax as demanded, on time.
The Court stated that “The genuine difficulty as defined is the subjective satisfaction of the authority competent, which is to be established by the assessee… The findings are made based on the records available, and the said findings would reveal that the petitioner assessee had not paid the demands for both the assessment years. The details of non-payments were also furnished in the impugned order… the conduct of the assessee throughout the income tax proceedings is vital for claiming waiver of interest. The respondents in the present case recorded the non-cooperation of the petitioner assessee.”