ITAT Jaipur in a recent matter announced that the imposition of the late fee as per section 234E of the Income Tax Act 1961 is obligatory, authentic, and consequential in nature and even after having “reasonable cause” represented from the assessees side for such default, it can’t be removed.
Latest Update
11th July 2022
- ITAT Pune bench has ruled that the order imposing a late fee under section 234E of the Income Tax Act, 1961 is appealable in delay for filing TDS statement. Read Order
Before knocking on the door of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Jaipur bench the party challenged the applied late fee u/s 234E of the Income Tax Act while issuing the information u/s 200A of the Act of Quarterly TDS statement filed by the applicant in a belated manner.
The Applicant also scrambled that according to Section 234E the late fee can’t be imposed for TDS Statements pending for the Financial Year 2016-2017. Along with it, on the TDS Statements the applied late fee can’t be recovered for the assessment year 16-17 in the case where it has not been collected at the time of delivering statements of TDS to the deptt. The said provision comes into effect from July 1, 2012. According to the said provision “Amount of late fee shall be paid before delivering a TDS statement”. The appellant also stated that the authorized TIN-NSDL center, as well as the TDS software utility, accepted the TDS statements without imposing any penalty or late fee.
Jaipur bench of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), dismissed the appeal (plea) and held up that after the amendments made in Section 200A on June 01, 2015, the Assessing Officer (AO) got the power to make adjustments on account of the fee, if any, according to the provisions of section 234E of the Income Tax Act.
While observing this matter the Tribunal said that “Once there is a default on the part of the assessee in submitting the quarterly TDS statement, the provisions of Section 234E of the Act are attracted and therefore while processing the quarterly TDS statement, the A.O. is bound to make the adjustment on account of late fee as provided U/s 234E of the Act. The levy of the late fee prescribed U/s 234E of the Act is mandatory and consequential in nature, therefore, the same cannot be deleted on the ground of reasonable cause as explained by the assessee. The order of the A.O. can be challenged only if the A.O. has failed to comply with the mandatory provisions of Section 200A r.w.s. 234E of the Act while making adjustments and issuing the intimation. In absence of any such allegation by the assessee that the A.O. has violated any of the provisions of Section 200A as well as Section 234E of the Act, the adjustment made by the A.O. on account of late fee U/s 234E of the Act cannot be deleted,”
