Car depreciation & insurance allowable irrespective of personal use by assessee

Car depreciation & insurance allowable irrespective of any personal use by the assessee

ABCAUS Case Law Citation:
ABCAUS 3248 (2020) (02) ITAT

In the instant case, appeal had been preferred by the assessee against the order of the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) in inter alia confirming the addition on account of personal use of car and telephone.

During the assessment proceedings, the Assessing Officer (AO) had disallowed 1/6th of the expenditure incurred on running and maintenance of vehicle and telephone use assuming that the personal use of the vehicle could not be ruled out.

The assessee took the matter to the CIT(A). However, the CIT(A) restricted the said expenditure @ 10% of the total expenditure claimed.

Being aggrieved by the order of the CIT(A), the assessee had filed appeal before the Tribunal.

The Tribunal noted that no specific justification had been given by both the lower authorities in making the impugned disallowance of the expenditure claimed.

The Tribunal observed that the assessee had claimed in the profit & loss account expenditure on vehicle running, maintenance & depreciation on car and insurance of the car.

Car depreciation & insurance allowable irrespective of personal use  

The Tribunal opined that so far as the depreciation on car and insurance of car expenses were concerned, the same were required to be allowed to the assessee irrespective of the any personal use, as the depreciation on block of assets is allowable as provided under the rules and insurance on car is to be mandatorily / statutorily required to be paid.

Considering the facts, the Tribunal held that no disallowance on estimation basis was attracted in respect of the car / vehicle use. The disallowance made by the lower authorities in respect of expenditure on vehicles was, therefore, ordered to be deleted.

However, so far as the telephone expenses were concerned, the Tribunal noted that no specific justification was offered by the assessee before either of the lower authorities as to how the assessee’s business requires so much use of telephone.

Accordingly, the disallowance restricted by the CIT(A) of the 10% of the telephone expenses was confirmed.

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