Filing of audit report at the assessment stage instead of filing it alongwith return of income is construed as sufficient compliance for claiming deduction u/s 80IB:

AO disallowed the deduction claimed u/s 80IB of the Act merely on the count that the audit report was not filed alongwith the return of income. The said claim was allowed by CIT(A). On Revenue’s appeal, Hon’ble ITAT observed that the though the assessee had not filed the audit report alongwith the return of income, the same was furnished before AO at the assessment stage. It was also observed that the Hon’ble Gujarat High Court, in the case of “CIT vs. Gujarat Oil and Allied Industries – 201 ITR 325 (Guj)”, has held that the requirement of filing audit report alongwith return of income is procedural in nature and audit report filed at the assessment stage shall be construed as sufficient compliance of the same. Following the said decision, assessee’s claim u/s 80IB was allowed. Accordingly, revenue’s appeal was dismissed.

[DCIT vs. Anoli Holdings Pvt. Ltd. – ITA No.3175/Ahd/2010]