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Section 40a(3) cash payment excess rs. 20000

Querist : Anonymous (Querist) 06 November 2011 This query is : Resolved 
INCASE WE DO CASH BASED PURCHASE RS. 15000 FOR RAW METERIAL GOODS ON 01/04/2011., RS. 25000 ON 05/05/2011, AND RS. 35000 ON 10/11/2011 IN THIS CASE MY PURCHASE EXPENSE WILLBE DISALLOWED BY INCOME TAX DEPT., I WANT TO KNOW THAT IF WE PURCHASE ON CASH BASIS ON DIFFERENT DIFFERENT DAYS BELOW RS. 20000/- BUT AGGREGRATE AMOUNT OVER RS. 20000 IN A PARTICULAR ONE FINANCIAL YEAR IT CAN BE DISSALOWED YES OR NOT AS PER SECTION 40A(3)? WHAT IS THE EXACT RULES CAN WE PAY ON DIFFERENT DAY BELOW RS 20000/- BUT AGGREGRATE MORE THAN RS. 20000/-
Guest (Expert) 06 November 2011
The condition is for aggregate payment of cash expenditure of Rs.20,000 on a single day, not during the whole year. However, any transaction should not be split in to several transactions below Rs.20,000 just to evade from tax laws, like purchase of raw material for Rs.25,000 in to two for making payment two cash payments of Rs.15,000 and Rs.10,000 on a single day.

In other words aggregate expenditure in cash should not go beyond Rs.20,000 on any day
A V Vishal (Expert) 06 November 2011
Rule 6D Of The Income Tax Rules Rule Deals With, Cases and circumstances in which a payment or aggregate of payments exceeding twenty thousand rupees may be made by a person in a day, otherwise than by an account payee cheque drawn on a bank or account payee bank draft.

RULE BEFORE AMENDMENT

The main part of the Rule earlier read as,No disallowance under clause (a) of sub-section (3) of section 40A shall be made and no payment shall be deemed to be the profits and gains of business or profession under clause (b) of sub-section (3) of section 40A where any payment in a sum exceeding twenty thousand rupees is made otherwise than by an account payee cheque drawn on a bank or account payee bank draft in the cases and circumstances specified hereunder, namely :-

RULE AFTER AMENDMENT

Now the amended Rule reads as, No disallowance under sub-section (3) of section 40A shall be made and no payment shall be deemed to be the profits and gains of business or profession under sub-section ( 3A ) of section 40A where a payment or aggregate of payments made to a person in a day, otherwise than by an account payee cheque drawn on a bank or account payee bank draft, exceeds twenty thousand rupees in the cases and circumstances specified hereunder, namely:-


In the 2008 Finance Act, Section 40 A has been amended as follows:-

Amendment of section 40A

In section 40A of the Income-tax Act, for sub-section (3), the following subsections shall be substituted with effect from the 1st day of April, 2009, namely:-

“(3) Where the assessee incurs any expenditure in respect of which a payment or aggregate of payments made to a person in a day, otherwise than by an account payee cheque drawn on a bank or account payee bank draft, exceeds twenty thousand rupees, no deduction shall be Allowed in respect of such expenditure.

(3A) Where an allowance has been made in the assessment for any year in respect of any liability incurred by the assessee for any expenditure and subsequently during any previous year hereinafter referred to as subsequent year) the assessee makes payment in respect thereof, otherwise than by an account payee cheque drawn on a bank or account payee bank draft, the payment so made shall be deemed to be the profits and gains of business or profession and accordingly chargeable to income-tax as income of the subsequent year if the payment or aggregate of payments made to a person in a day, exceeds twenty thousand rupees:

Provided that no disallowance shall be made and no payment shall be deemed to be the profits and gains of business or profession under sub-section (3) and this subsection where a payment or aggregate of payments made to a person in a day, otherwise than by an account payee cheque drawn on a bank or account payee bank draft, exceeds twenty thousand rupees, in such cases and under such circumstances as may be prescribed, having regard to the nature and extent of banking facilities available, considerations of business expediency and other relevant factors.”

The Government explained this amendment as follows:-

Amendment to the provisions of section 40A (3) of the Income-tax Act, Section 40A (3)(a) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 provides that any expenditure incurred in respect of which payment is made in a sum exceeding Rs.20,000 /- otherwise than by an account payee cheque drawn on a bank or by an account payee bank draft, shall not be allowed as a deduction. Section 40A (3)(b) also provides for deeming a payment as profits and gains of business or profession if the expenditure is incurred in a particular year but the payment is made in any subsequent year in a sum exceeding Rs. 20,000/- otherwise than by an account payee cheque or by an account payee bank draft. However, the provisions of this section are subject to exceptions as provided in Rule 6DD of the Income-tax Rules, 1962.

Section 40A (3) is an anti tax-evasion measure. By requiring payments to be made by an account payee instrument, it is possible to verify the genuineness of the transaction thereby mitigating the risk of evasion. It has come to notice that the provisions of section 40A (3) are being circumvented by splitting a particular high value payment to a person into several cash payments, each below Rs. 20,000/-. This splitting is also resorted to for payments made in the course of a single day. Courts have also held that the statutory limit in section 40A (3) applies to payment made to a party at one time and not to the aggregate of the payments made to a party in the course of the day as recorded in the cash book. According to the judicial opinion, the words used are `in a sum’, i.e., single sum.

Therefore, irrespective of any number of transactions, where the amount does not exceed the prescribed amount in each transaction, the rigours of section 40A (3) will not apply.

To overcome the splitting of payments to the same person made during a day as referred above and to increase the efficacy of the provision, the amendment seeks to substitute the present provision to provide that where a payment or aggregate of payments made to a person in a day, otherwise than by an account payee cheque drawn on a bank or account payee bank draft, exceeds twenty thousand rupees, the disallowance of such expenditure shall be made under the proposed sub-section (3) of section 40A or the payment shall be deemed to be the profits and gains of business or profession under the proposed sub-section (3A) of section 40A , as the case may be.

To illustrate with an example, let us assume a taxpayer has incurred an expenditure of Rs 40,000/-. The taxpayer makes separate payments of Rs 15,000/-, Rs 16,000/- and Rs 9,000/- all by cash, to the person concerned in a single day. The aggregate amount of payment made to a person in a day, in this case, is Rs 40,000/-. Since, the aggregate payment by cash exceeds Rs 20,000/-, Rs. 40,000/- will not be allowed as a deduction in computing the total income of the taxpayer in accordance with the proposed amendment.

The proviso to the proposed sub-section (3A) provides that in certain prescribed cases and circumstances the provisions of proposed sub-sections (3) and (3A) shall not apply.

This amendment will take effect from 1st April, 2009 and will accordingly apply in relation to assessment year 2009-10 and subsequent assessment years.

Accordingly Rule 6DD is amended accordingly.CBDT Notification No. 97/2008 [F.NO. 142/10/2008- TPL], Dated: October 10, 2008.
prabhakar singh (Expert) 06 November 2011
agreed.very lucidly explained by Mr.A.V.Vishal.


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