Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

" Whether in the circumstances of the case the Income-tax Officer was entitled to compute the income, profits and gains of the assessees upon the basis of the printed copy of the profit and loss account sent with the letter of the assessees of July 18, 1931, without regard to any under- valuation of the stock which may have been or may be proved to have been made."

The High Court was of opinion that the covering letter formed part of the method of accounting employed by the assessees within the meaning of s. 13 of the Act and that the Income-tax Officer was not entitled to split up the method of accounting and to regard the profit and loss account apart from the covering letter; that the Income-tax Officer had only accepted a portion of the method, without taking the method as a whole, which he was not entitled to do. It, therefore held that the matter was still at large for the proper decision of the Income-tax Officer and accordingly answered the amended question in the negative. The Commissioner of Income-tax then carried an appeal to the Privy Council and their Lordships found themselves unable to agree with the view of the High Court as to the meaning of s. 13 of the Act and they were of the opinion that the section related to a method of accounting regularly employed by the assessee for his own purpose and did not relate to a method of making up the statutory return for assessment to income-tax. Secondly, the section clearly made such a method of accounting a compulsory basis of computation unless in the opinion of the Income-tax Officer the income, profits and gains cannot properly be deduced therefrom. The duty of the Income-tax Officer was to determine whether it was possible to deduce the true profits from the account and the judgment of the Income-tax Officer under the proviso must be properly exercised. Their Lordships laid it down that it is the duty of the Income-tax Officer where there is a method of accounting regularly employed by the assessee not to prima facie, accept the profits and gains shown by the assessee but to consider whether the income, profits and gains can properly be deduced therefrom and to proceed according to his judgment on the question. On the facts of the case before them their Lordships were of the opinion that the Income-tax Officer acted on the same view as that expressed by the Appellate Assistant Commissioner, and did not perform the duty above stated. In so far as the facts showed that the method of accounting regularly employed by the assessees did not show the true income, profits or gains, the question was further amended by them as follows: