AO not justified in making addition by adopting extrapolation without any material evidence

AO was not justified in making addition by adopting method of extrapolation without bringing any material evidence in support – ITAT

In a recent judgment, ITAT Delhi has held that AO was not justified in making addition by adopting the method of extrapolation without bringing any material evidence in support of making such additions

ABCAUS Case Law Citation:
5079 (2026) (03) abcaus.in ITAT

A search action was conducted at the business premises of the appellant assessee. The assessee had three manufacturing units. During the search action, various documents, physical as well as digital data, were found and seized.

From the seized documents, the Assessing Officer observed that the assessee had involved in payment of salary to off-roll workers for different months pertaining to different units.

The documents found during search showing details of off roll salary for one month were corroborated with the statement acknowledging the pen drives and the distribution of off-roll wages/salaries to various workers for the purpose of saving ESI and PF.

Based on the above documents and evidences on record, the Assessing Officer issued a notice under section 142(1) of the Act to the assessee, to explain why the above payment of salary/wages should not be treated as unexplained and undisclosed expenditure and not to add to the income of the assessee.

The assessee submitted that it had incurred the above expenditure for manufacturing during the COVID-19 pandemic period and also during the expansion of its units and explained the necessity of engaging such workers to carry out small activities such as loading and shifting of material from one factory to another factories.

However, the Assessing Officer rejected the explanation and by extrapolation calculated the average monthly payment for the block period and made an addition under section 69C read with section 115BBE of the Act.

The CIT(A) allowed the ground of appeal of the assesss by holding that the addition was made merely on the basis of extrapolation.

The Tribunal observed that he AO came to the conclusion that the assessee was utilizing the workers regularly and incurring the expenses during the whole time, hence he proceeded to determine the average monthly payment to the off roll workers and applied the same to the Block Period.

The Tribunal observed that the AO had absolute material indicating assessee had employed the off role employees during the four months, which was accepted by the assessee. There was no material with the AO to come to conclusion that the assessee employed such off-roll employees in the other years or other months. There was no justification for the AO to make addition based on extrapolation. As held by Hon’ble Delhi High Court held that the AO cannot adopt such method.

The Tribunal held that AO had made the addition by adopting the method of extrapolation without bringing any material evidence in support of making such additions during the period.

Accordingly, the ground raised by the revenue were dismissed.

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