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AMIT BAJAJ ADVOCATE (ADVOCATE)     31 May 2010

Meaning of Turnover or sales for the purpose of Tax Audit

A person is required to get his accounts audited u/s 44AB if
1)The turnover of  business exceeds Rs 60 Lakhs, or
2)The Gross Receipts of Profession exceed Rs 15 Lakhs.

In case of business what should be the meaning of turnover/sales? Should it be Gross sales or net sales? Should it include VAT, Sales tax or excise duty? The meaning of turnover/sales for the purpose of tax audit is dissussed as follows:

In the "Guidance Note on Terms used in Financial Statements" published by ICAI, "the expression "Sales Turnover" has been defined as : "The aggregate amount for which sales are effected or services rendered by an enterprises. The term 'gross turnover/sales' and 'net turnover/sales' are sometimes used to distinguish the sales aggregate before and after deduction of returns and trade discounts"

In the statement issued by ICAI on the companies (Auditors' Report) Order 2003 the word 'turnover' has been defined as under-
"The term 'turnover' for the purposes of this clause may be interpreted to mean the aggregate amount for which sales are effected or services rendered by an enterprises"

Whether sales tax and excise duty to be included in the sales/turnover: If the sales tax/VAT and excise duty are included in the sale price no adjustment in respect thereof should be made for considering the quantum of turnover. If  however, the excise duty and/or Sales Tax Account (being seperate Accounts) and payments to the authority (i.e payment of sales tax/VAT and excise duty with the treasury)are debited in the same account, they would not be included in the turnover.

Sales of Scrap: Sales of scrap shown seperately under the heading "Miscellaneous Income" will have to be included in the turnover.

Luxury Tax: Similarly a luxury tax collected by a hotelier also a trading receipt in his hand- Pandyan Hotels Ltd.v. CIT [2004] 266 ITR 172 (Mad.)

Trade Discounts: Trade Discounts can be deducted from sales. Trade Discounts are generaly allowed in the sales invoice, therefore the discount allowed in the sales invoice will reduce the sale price and therefore can be deducted from the turnover.

Cash Discount: Cash Discount otherwise than that allowed in a cash memo/sales invoice is in the nature of a financing charge and a revenue receipt and is not related to turnover. Hence the same should not be deducted from turnover.

Commission on sales: Commission on sales included in the sales payable to the consignee/third person should not be deducted from the figure of turnover for the purpose of section 44AB.

Sales Returns: Price of goods returned should be deducted from the figure of turnover even if the returns are from the sales made in earlier years.

Sales proceeds of Fixed assets: Sales proceeds of fixed assets would not form part of turnover for the purpose of section 44AB since the fixed assets are not held for resale.

Sales proceed of any investment: Sales proceed of any property held as investment in property will not form part of turnover for the purpose of tax audit. Similarly sale proceeds of any shares, securities, debentures etc which are held as investment will not form part of turnover. However if shares, securities, debentures, etc are held as stock in trade, the sale proceeds therefrom will form part of turnover for the purpose of tax audit.


The Views expressed are only Personal Views based upon my studies and interpretation of law.

Amit Bajaj Advocate
Email: amitbajajadvocate@hotmail.com
webpage: https://amitbajajadvocate.blogspot.com
M +919815243335



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 10 Replies

Vineet (Director)     01 June 2010

Dear Amitji

 

Thanks for this informative piece of information.  However, I take liberty to disagree on the issue of sales tax, excice duty etc.

 

The definition of Turnover as per guidance note issued by ICIAI may hold good for classification and nomenclature in Company Audit Reports. However as far as Income Tax Act Audit provisions u/s 44AB, the term referred is Total Sales, Turnover or Gross Receipts which encompasses all inclusive taxes such as Sales Tax, Excise duty, service tax etc even though the assessee maintains a seperate account for the same. We may refer to decision of Supreme Court in the case of Chowringhee Sales Bureaue in this regard.

AMIT BAJAJ ADVOCATE (ADVOCATE)     01 June 2010

Dear Vineet ji, thanks for appericiation. In my view if the sale is made inclusive of taxes, then the taxes will constitute as part of the gross turnover for the purpose of section 44AB. However if the VAT or any other tax is seperatley charged on the sale price and seperate account heads are maintained for VAT etc then it will not be part of the Gross Turnover for the purpose of tax audit.

 Please refer to the views expressed by Prof Narayan Jain Advocate and Dilip Loyalka F.C.A in the book "How To Handle Income Tax Problems Volume 1"

If we also see the ITR 4 or 5 forms in the part A P&L A/c, Gross Receipts or sales are required to be shown in the column 1 and VAT and other taxes are required to be shown in the sepearte columns 2,8,34, which also to some extent shows that gross receipts should not include indirect taxes. although ITR forms cannot be a conclusive proof to show that Gross Turnover or sales should be consideed as excluding indirect taxes for the purpose of tax audit, still it shows the intent of the legislature to some extent.

 

I want to read the exact text of the judgement mentioned above please provide the same or citation if possible.

 

Vineet (Director)     01 June 2010

Citation 87 ITR 542 (SC). Decision attached.


Attached File : 4 4 m s chowringhee sales bureau p vs c i t west bengal on 10 october 1972.pdf downloaded: 890 times

AMIT BAJAJ ADVOCATE (ADVOCATE)     01 June 2010

The facts of the case are quite different. The decision in the above judgement is case specific. It has been emphasised in the judgement that as the amount of sales tax was received by the appelant as an auctioneer, therefore the amount of sales tax shall be considered as his business or trading receipt. Nowhere it has been decided in the judgement that sales tax received would form part of gross receipts or gross sales for the purpose of section 44AB.

Vineet (Director)     02 June 2010

Dear Amitji

 

The Chowringhee Sales Bureaue case is considered as one of the landmark jusdgements in history of direct taxation and it will be trivial to pass the same as case specific. It is invariably quoted in all cases where the issue of turnover crops in specially disallowance u/s 43B, section 80I, 80IA, 80HHC etc. Referring to this decision it has invariably been held that receipts in the nature of sales tax, excise duty etc form part of total turnover or gross receipts.

 

As a matter of fact courts have been at great pais to dither from ratio of above decision in case of computation of deduction u/s 80HHC wherein it was held that sales tax will not be included in total turnover (Refer Sudarshan Chemicals Bombay High Court and other decisions) due to specific context in that section and not as general rule.

 

The ratio des dandi of chowringhee decision is not whether the sales tax receipt of auctioneer are trading receipt is is actually what the court held as below:

It is the true nature and the quality of the receipt and not the head under which it is entered in the account books as would prove decisive. If a receipt is a trading receipt, the fact that it is not So shown in the account books of the assessee would not prevent the assessing authority from treating it as trading receipt.

So immaterial of the fact whether sales tax receipt is credited to sales accout or any other head (including balance sheet item), if the same is in nature of trading receipt (which normally the case is unless the sale consideration and sales tax is received on behalf of somebody else as agent), it will form part of gross turnover/ Gross Receipts.

Vineet (Director)     02 June 2010

Dear Amitji

 

The Chowringhee Sales Bureaue case is considered as one of the landmark jusdgements in history of direct taxation and it will be trivial to pass the same as case specific. It is invariably quoted in all cases where the issue of turnover crops in specially disallowance u/s 43B, section 80I, 80IA, 80HHC etc. Referring to this decision it has invariably been held that receipts in the nature of sales tax, excise duty etc form part of total turnover or gross receipts.

 

As a matter of fact courts have been at great pains to dither from ratio of above decision in case of computation of deduction u/s 80HHC wherein it was held that sales tax will not be included in total turnover (Refer Sudarshan Chemicals Bombay High Court and other decisions) due to specific context in that section and not as general rule.

 

The ratio des dandi of chowringhee decision is not whether the sales tax receipt of auctioneer are trading receipt, it is actually what the court held as below:

It is the true nature and the quality of the receipt and not the head under which it is entered in the account books as would prove decisive. If a receipt is a trading receipt, the fact that it is not So shown in the account books of the assessee would not prevent the assessing authority from treating it as trading receipt.

So immaterial of the fact whether sales tax receipt is credited to sales accout or any other head (including balance sheet item), if the same is in nature of trading receipt (which normally the case is unless the sale consideration and sales tax is received on behalf of somebody else as agent), it will form part of gross turnover/ Gross Receipts.

M.V.GIRI (ADVOCATE & TAX CONSULTANT)     03 June 2010

I agree with Mr. Amit Bajaj, advocate. In Vat regime , Vat has to be calculated separately to claim input tax credit. So the assessee has to maintain separate accounts for input tax and output tax . So that he can calculate the tax liability in every  month.Therefore the Vat amount will not part of the total turnover.

Vineet (Director)     03 June 2010

Dear Mr Giri, There is no denial that seperate accounting treatment is required for  in VAT regime but that exactly is the ratio of Supreme Court decision. If the Tax collected by assessee is in the nature of its trading receipts, the same will be added to total turnover irrespective of the accounting treatment. As a matter of fact such collected tax is treated as income of the assessee and deduction in respect of the same is allowed u/s 43B only on payment basis.

 

Even the unutlised VAT credit (input tax) though accounted for seperately is included in the taxable profits of the assessee u/s 145A of the Act by adjustment in the valuation of stock.

ravi (trainee)     08 April 2011

VAT being a TRADING receipt will form part of receipts although not qualifying as SALES in profit and loss account.

CA VK Dwivedi (Job)     18 April 2011

Dear Amit,

Turnover means Gross Turnover (Including excise and sales tax) but excluding sales return, rebate, discounts, dbk etc.

for Agent it is Comission

for Speculative business it is net of Sale and purchase.

for Share broker: Brokerage received.


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