Delhi ITAT Grants Relief to Brett Lee Over Invalid Income Tax Notice Served Beyond Limitation Period

By: Admin
June 04, 2024
Categories: ITAT|News
4 Min Read

The Delhi bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has granted relief to former Australian cricketer Brett Lee in a tax case, ruling that the notice issued to him by the Income Tax Department under the Income Tax Act was beyond the limitation period. The case involved a ₹3 crore endorsement fee received by Lee for the assessment year 2013-14 from three Indian entities: Reebok India Company, Castrol India Limited, and Knight Riders Sport Private Ltd.

The Income Tax Department discovered that no tax had been paid on the endorsement fee and subsequently issued a tax notice to Lee under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act. However, the tribunal noted that this notice should have been served on or before March 31, 2021. The department sent the notice a day before this deadline but to an incorrect email address, which resulted in it bouncing back. The tribunal ruled that, under these circumstances, the notice could not be considered valid service under Section 148 of the Act. Consequently, the tribunal bench of Saktijit Dey and Brajesh Kumar Singh declared the assessment order invalid and quashed it.

The assessing officer (AO) argued that the Income Tax Business Application (ITBA)-generated notice was issued on March 30, 2021, and served on the assessee. Lee’s counsel, however, contended that the notice was sent to an incorrect email address and thus never communicated to Lee. The counsel also pointed out that Lee had only registered his email address on the ITBA portal on March 31, 2022. The tribunal concurred with this argument, acknowledging that Lee could only have accessed the notice in March 2022 and that the date on which he viewed the notice in the e-filing portal should be considered the date of issuance.