Supreme Court rules accumulated losses of amalgamating company to be set off after reducing interest waiver benefit

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1 19 April 2017 EY Tax Alert Supreme Court rules accumulated losses of amalgamating company to be set off after reducing interest waiver benefit Executive summary Tax Alerts cover significant tax news, developments and changes in legislation that affect Indian businesses. They act as technical summaries to keep you on top of the latest tax issues. For more information, please contact your EY advisor. This Tax Alert summarizes a recent ruling of the Supreme Court (SC) in the case of McDowell & Company Ltd. [1] (Taxpayer), for tax year , in the context of the quantum of benefit of accumulated losses of the amalgamating company available to the amalgamated company. Prior to the amendment to the Indian Tax Laws (ITL) by Finance Act, 1992, with effect from tax year , there was no provision in the extant ITL to tax benefit obtained by an amalgamated company in respect of remission of trading liability of the amalgamating company. Despite the absence of such a provision, the SC held that if the amalgamated company is availing the benefit of set off of accumulated losses of the amalgamating company, in accordance with specific provisions of the ITL, the quantum of such benefit needs to be reduced by the value of the benefit obtained in respect of remission of trading liability. Such adjustment is necessary to ensure that the benefit of set off of accumulated losses of the amalgamating company is restricted to the actual accumulated losses. [1] [Civil Appeal No of 2006 [TS 147-SC-2017]

2 Background The ITL provides for clawback of deduction allowed in the past years in respect of loss, expenditure or trading liability if the taxpayer obtains any benefit in cash or any other mode or through remission or cessation of the trading liability. Prior to the amendment to the ITL by the Finance Act, 1992, with effect from tax year , there was no provision in the extant ITL to tax benefit obtained by an amalgamated company in respect of remission of trading liability of the amalgamating company. The ITL also provides for transition of business loss and unabsorbed depreciation of the amalgamating company to the amalgamated company, subject to compliance of certain conditions which, during tax year , included obtaining approval/declaration of the Central Government. Facts Through a scheme of amalgamation with effect from 1 April 1977, which was sanctioned in tax year , the Taxpayer took over a sick company which had accumulated losses and outstanding dues to banks/financial institutions. As part of the proceedings for rehabilitation of the sick company through said amalgamation, the lenders waived off unpaid interest accrued till 1 April The Taxpayer, as the amalgamated company, became entitled to carry forward and set off business loss and unabsorbed depreciation of the sick amalgamating company in tax year The business loss included unpaid interest to lenders till 1 April 1977, which was subsequently waived by the lenders. The Taxpayer sought to set off the business loss of the sick company, without reducing the waived amount of unpaid interest, on the basis that the extant clawback provision did not cover the benefit obtained by the amalgamated company in respect of any deduction granted to the amalgamating company, whereas the benefit of transition of business loss was claimed as per the statutory right available to the Taxpayer. The Taxpayer relied on an earlier SC ruling in the case of Saraswati Industrial Syndicate Ltd. v. CIT [2] (Saraswati Industrial ruling) which had held that, in order to attract liability under the clawback provision, the identity of the taxpayer in the earlier year in which the deduction had been granted in relation to a trading liability and in the subsequent year in which the benefit was derived, must be the same. The provision is not attracted if there is any change in the identity of the person. When two companies amalgamate, the amalgamating company loses its corporate entity status, though its rights and liabilities are determined as per the scheme of amalgamation. Thus, in the case of amalgamation, the benefit of waiver derived by the amalgamated company in respect of trading liability allowed to the amalgamating company cannot be taxed in the hands of the amalgamated company under this provision. The Tax Authority did not accept the Taxpayer s claim and reduced the benefit of transition of business loss by the amount of the benefit of waiver of unpaid interest, which was upheld by the First Appellate Authority. On further appeal by the Taxpayer, the Tribunal ruled in the Taxpayer s favour. The Tax Authority sought a reference of the question of law to the Karnataka High Court (HC) from the Tribunal which was rejected by the Tribunal, as also the HC. On further appeal by the Tax Authority, the SC directed the Tribunal to refer the question of law to the HC. On such reference, the HC overruled the Tribunal s ruling and ruled in favor of the Tax Authority The Taxpayer appealed further to the SC. [2] [182 ITR 212]

3 Issue before the SC Whether the quantum of business loss transitioned to the amalgamated company needs to be reduced by the benefit obtained by the amalgamated company in respect of waiver of unpaid interest of the amalgamating company. SC s ruling By virtue of loss, according to the transition provision, the losses suffered by the amalgamating company are treated as losses of the amalgamated company. In such a case, it would not be correct for the amalgamated company to take advantage of losses suffered by the amalgamating company but ignore the benefit accrued in respect of waiver of unpaid dues of the amalgamating company. The adjustment is necessary in order to see that the benefit is restricted to the actual accumulated losses. The SC ruled in the Tax Authority s favor and held that the quantum of business loss transitioned to the amalgamated company needs to be reduced by the benefit obtained by the amalgamated company in respect of waiver of unpaid interest of the amalgamating company, for the following reasons: It is true that, as held in the Saraswati Industrial ruling, the amalgamating company loses its existence and, hence, as per extant law, the benefit obtained by the amalgamated company in respect of waiver of trading liability of the amalgamating company cannot be taxed under the clawback provision. But, the Saraswati Industrial ruling was concerned with the clawback provision, whereas the dispute in the present case concerns the provision relating to transition of business loss of the amalgamating company to the amalgamated company. Hence, the principle of the Saraswati Industrial ruling is not applicable in the instant case. The rights of the amalgamating company are determined in terms of the scheme of amalgamation and the benefit of waiver of interest had accrued after the amalgamating company ceased to exist. It was, in fact, availed of by the amalgamated company. It is important to note that the amalgamated company was allowed to set off the accumulated losses of the amalgamating company. While computing such losses, the benefit obtained by the amalgamated company has to be adjusted and only net losses can be allowed to be set off by the amalgamated company. Comments It may be noted that this SC ruling pertains to tax year during which the extant clawback provision did not permit taxation of the benefit of waiver in the hands of the amalgamated company in respect of trading liability incurred by the amalgamating company. This was addressed by a subsequent amendment, effective from tax year , in terms of which the successor entity is made liable to tax in respect of waiver of trading liabilities incurred by the predecessor entity. The ratio of the present SC ruling appears to be that the amalgamated company cannot claim duplicated benefit of transition of business loss of the amalgamating company, without reducing the benefit obtained by the amalgamated company in respect of waiver of trading liability of the amalgamating company, despite the absence of a specific provision to tax such benefit in the hands of the amalgamated company.

4 Considering that the amended law itself has addressed the issue by making the benefit of waiver taxable in the hands of the amalgamated company, the quantum of losses to be transitioned to the amalgamated company need not be reduced by the amount of waiver. Else, it may result in duplicated taxation of the benefit in the hands of the amalgamated company.

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