Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Illegally encroached land is not a capital asset; profit arising on its sale is taxable as income from other source

Property illegally encroached by assessee would not be considered as 'Capital asset' under section 2(14) and, consequently, gain arising from transfer of such property could not be assessed as capital gain but as income from other sources.
Facts:
a)      The assessee had shown long-term capital gain from sale of unauthorisedly encroached school land for which he had no title/right.
b)      The Assessing Officer held there was no capital assest owned by assessee as he did not have legal right or title over the asset and, therefore, the income declared was not chargeable under section 45 but under section 56 as income from other sources.
c)      On appeal, CIT (A) reversed the findings of AO. Aggrieved with the CIT(A) order, revenue filed the instant appeal before Tribunal.
The Tribunal held in favour of revenue as under:
1)   The assessee pleaded that the definition of capital asset under Section 2(14) has used words property of 'any kind' and it is not necessary that it should be lawfully acquired property. This proposition could not be accepted because the legislature in its wisdom has used this word for lawful property only.
2)      If the plea of the assessee was allowed, then any person will encroach upon a Government land by showing the same in his balance sheet and shall claim capital gains, which is not permissible.
3)    Under the charging section of capital gains, the crucial requirements are that there must be a transfer and such transfer must be of a capital asset. The primary school land was encroached upon/illegally occupied by the assessee and there was no transfer of any capital asset.
4)      Capital gains under section 45 accrue only if there is a sale or any transfer of the capital asset. But in the instant case, there was no transfer as such the assessee encroached upon the school land. Accordingly, the said land could not be called as capital asset owned by assessee.

5)     Since it was nota case of sale or transfer of capital asset, there was no question of capital gains. Hence, profit arising on sale of encroached land would be taxable as income from other source.- ITO v Bhagwan T. Fatnani[2015] 58 taxmann.com 227 (Mumbai - Trib.)