The Pune Bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) deleted Rs. 17 lakh unexplained investment addition arising from a property purchase in the wife’s name after finding that the disputed amount had been paid from her husband’s declared bank accounts.
Ashwini Manoj Nimbalkar (the assessee) faced reassessment proceedings over the purchase of an immovable property for Rs. 87,00,436. During reassessment, the Assessing Officer accepted the source of investment to the extent of Rs. 70 lakh, paid through an HDFC housing loan taken in the name of the assessee’s husband.
The AO did not accept the explanation for the remaining amount and added Rs. 17,00,436 as unexplained investment. Against returned income of Rs. 52,500, the income was assessed at Rs. 17,52,936. The assessee challenged the addition before the CIT(A) but did not succeed.
Before the ITAT, the assessee’s counsel did not press the separate legal grounds and challenged the addition on merits. They argued that the remaining property consideration had also been paid by the assessee’s husband through his bank accounts and that the payments were verifiable from the records.
The revenue counsel supported the CIT(A)’s order.
The single-member Bench comprising Dr Manish Borad (Accountant Member) examined the husband’s HDFC Bank and Indian Overseas Bank statements. It found payments of Rs. 3.50 lakh and Rs. 1.45 lakh on December 18, 2014, along with Rs. 12,26,886 and Rs. 1,000 on January 17, 2015. The payments together amounted to Rs. 17,22,886.
The tribunal also observed that the husband was regularly filing income tax returns, was employed with Poddar Medical College, Worli and had declared gross income of Rs. 14,11,153 for Assessment Year 2015-16.
The Bench found that these facts remained uncontroverted and that the source of the investment was verifiable from the husband’s bank accounts. It held that the investment was satisfactorily explained and reversed the CIT(A)’s finding.
The tribunal deleted the Rs. 17,00,436 addition under Section 69. The appeal was partly allowed.
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How to cite
2026 TAXSCAN (ITAT) 1451
Before the Court
Income Tax Appellate Tribunal
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