Friday, May 15, 2015

No sec. 80QQB relief on royalty received for writing a cookery book as it wasn’t earned in exercise of profession


Facts:

a)Assessee received royalty for writing a cookery book on which she claimed deduction under Section 80QQB.

b)The Assessing officer (AO)disallowed deduction on ground that coking was not an 'art' and was a 'skill'.

c)Further, the CIT(A) sustained the disallowance made by AO for the reasons that firstly, according to requirement of Section 80QQB, such income should have been earned in the exercise of the profession and secondly, the cookery does not come in the definition of "art". The aggrieved-assessee filed the instant appeal before the Tribunal.

Tribunal held in favour of revenue as under:

1)"Profession includes vocation" as per the definition of profession given under Section 2(36) of income-tax Act. There should be some special qualification of a person apart from skill and ability which are required for carrying on any activity which could be considered as "profession". This could be education in a particular system either in the college or university or it may be through experience.

2)In the instant case, the Ld. Counsel for assessee submitted that assessee did not write any other book before or after release of cookery book. Further, no particulars had been placed on record to show that assessee was specially qualified apart from skill and ability to write book.

3)There was also no material available on record to show that assessee was having education in the field of cookery either in the college or university or even by experience. Thus, there was no material on record to suggest that the assessee had qualified the parameters laid down for considering particular activity as a professional activity.

4)Income earned by assessee as royalty could not be said to be have been earned"in exercise of her profession". Thus, non-fulfillment of such condition would disentitle the assessee to claim deduction under Section 80QQB.Mrs. Pratibha A. Kothavale v. DCIT [2015] 57 taxmann.com 257 (Mumbai - Trib.)