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Showing contexts for: Incestuous in Commissioner Of Income Tax Delhi-I vs M/S Abhinandan Investment Ltd. on 19 November, 2015Matching Fragments
45. It follows from the aforesaid decision that in order to examine whether a transaction is a device or a subterfuge the answer to the question whether the transaction has any reasonable business purpose would be a vital consideration. Clearly, the use of corporate form to evade tax would be impermissible and it is, thus, necessary in the facts of the present case to look at the transactions entered into by the Assessee and other companies of the Jindal Group. It is at once clear that shares of listed corporate entities of the Group were sold and funds were raised. The sale of these shares had resulted in substantial capital gains in the hands of the investment companies of the Jindal Group including the Assessee and the investment companies were liable to pay tax on the gains so made. In order to avoid paying the tax, the investment companies including the Assessee entered into transactions for renunciation of rights with related companies of the same group. These incestuous transactions were for no other business purpose but to contrive a loss in the hands of the companies such as the Assessee who had incurred a tax liability on account of the gains made. It is claimed that the transactions of sale of rights entitlement had resulted in a tax loss, although no real loss had been incurred by these companies inasmuch as the consideration received for sale of rights exceeded the original cost of their principal investment. The funds received from sale of shares which had resulted in capital gains - in the case of the Assessee the sale of shares of JSL - were transferred to other related companies including for the purposes of subscription of the rights renounced by the investment companies. In the case of the Assessee, the sale proceeds of the shares of JSL were loaned to JSL, thus, enabling JSL to subscribe to the rights that were sold by the Assessee at a fraction of its market value. Viewed from the perspective that all companies were related and a part of the Jindal Group, the rights to subscribe to PCDs were not alienated and remained within the Group. The corporate structure of the entities within the group was used for contriving the transactions which would conjure a tax loss in the hands of the companies - including the Assessee - which had incurred a tax liability.