The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Hyderabad has passed a ruling in which it dismissed an appeal made by the revenue department — Tribunal ruled that being a joint account holder in a husband’s salary account does not mean an Undisclosed Foreign Account. This appeal was made against an order of the tribunal wherein the revenue department had appealed to impose clause (d) of Para 10 of the CBDT Circular bearing number 3 of 2018 dated July 11, 2018; however, it was dismissed on account of low tax effect.
Here, in this case, the assessee is Shrimati Ayesha Abid Ali’s husband holds an account with the HSBC Bank in which she was the joint account holder. And the account was opened by the employer of the husband for the purpose of depositing salary. The assessee Shrimati Ayesha Abid Ali had earned interest on the deposit.
The learned Counsel for the assessee, Sri Mohammed Siddiq Ali, submitted in the tribunal that the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) (CIT (A)) had granted relief to the assessee on the basis that she(assessee) is only a housewife and did not have any independent source of income and considering the fact that the estimated income as interest from HSBC Account needs to be appraised in the hands of the assessee’s husband as salary income.
“Judicial Member Accountant Member Laxmi Prasad Sahu and P. Madhavi Devi rejected this miscellaneous application made by the revenue and held that having regard to the rival contentions and the material on record, we find that the Assessing Officer has made the addition in the hands of the assessee of interest income from an A/c with HSBC held by the assessee jointly with her husband which was opened by his employer to deposit his salary income. Therefore, it is not an undisclosed foreign a/c of the assessee and therefore, the exception (d) to the circular will not apply. Therefore, this M.A is dismissed.”
