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Tax is the primary source of revenue for Government in India, and thus, various forms of income are taxable under the purview of the Income Tax Act[1]. However, individual incomes are exempted from taxability and don’t fall within the scope of the tax laws of India. Incomes such as agricultural income, tax-free interest, eligible incomes of charitable institutions, etc. are exempted from tax, and thus assessee needs not to pay any tax on such income.
However, in a few cases, assessee incurred certain expenditures to earn income, which is tax-free income, i.e., exempted income. For Instance, to finance the investment in tax-free bonds, the taxpayer has taken the loan and is paying the interest on such a loan.
So, the question arises whether the taxpayer can claim the expenses incurred to earn the exempted income. There is a contradictory view on this debate. The taxpayer contended that such expenses incurred to earn the exempted income should be allowed as a deduction to arrive at taxable income. On the contrary, Income Tax Department holds an entirely different view stating that whole income is already exempted from tax liability, and those expenses shall not be allowed as they will reduce the total tax liability on non-exempted incomes.
Therefore, section 14A was introduced with effect from 2001, bringing clarity on the intentions of the legislature concerning the expenses made to earn exempt income, which is discussed in brief henceforth.
Table of Contents
As per the Section 14A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 expenditure incurred by the taxpayer for earning the income which is not included in the taxable income or such incomes are exempted from the tax implications should not be considered or taken into account while computing the total income of the taxpayer to levy tax thereon.
The main motive behind the insertion of this section is to ensure that the taxpayer doesn’t get the double benefits in case of composition transactions.
Section 14A applies in the following cases:
Section 14A contains the following sub-section:
OR
As per rule 8D(1), in case the assessing officer after verifying the books is not satisfied by:
The assessing officer shall determine the value of the above-stated expenditure as per Rule 8D(2). As per this rule expenditure incurred for earning the exempted income shall be the aggregate of the following two:
AND
Following are the key points for understanding section 14A:
There have been countless litigation on this issue, but it has been decided that the disallowance of expenditure is towards exempted income. As in the case of Assistant CIT vs. M. Baskaran, it was held that disallowance is for exempted income and not exempted investment.
Disallowance under section 14A can never exceed the amount of expenditure claimed by the assessee as discussed in the popular case of Gillette Group Pvt Ltd vs. Assistant CIT.
As the order passed in the case of Principal Commissioner of Income Tax vs. Sintex Industries stating that in case the assessee has utilized its surplus fund for making a minor investment, there will be no disallowance of interest expenses and administrative expenditure under section 14A.
Also, Read: Analysis of Tax on Exempt Income.
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