Tribunal allows section 80P deduction where Form 10-IF was filed inadvertently and old regime was claimed

5-Second Takeaway

The Tribunal held that the CPC was not justified in taxing the assessee under the new regime and denying the section 80P deduction when the return itself claimed the old regime and answered “No” to the option under section 115BAD. It followed Akshay Nitin Malu and allowed the appeal.

The assessee, a cooperative society, filed its return claiming a deduction under section 80P and, on the same day, also filed Form No. 10-IF. The CPC treated that form as an exercise of the new-regime option and processed the return accordingly, disallowing the deduction.

The Tribunal noted that the return itself showed the assessee had claimed relief under the old regime and had specifically answered “No” to the question whether it had opted for the new tax regime under section 115BAD. On that basis, the filing of Form No. 10-IF was treated as inadvertent and not as a binding election.

Since the facts were stated to be identical to those in Akshay Nitin Malu, the Tribunal held that the Addl./Jt. CIT(A) was not right in supporting the CPC’s action. The return could not be processed by taxing the assessee under the new regime.

The appeal was allowed.