<div>An income tax defaulter cannot be absolved of paying penalty by just making a voluntary disclosure after being caught for hiding the income, the Supreme Court has said.<br /><br />"It is trite law that the voluntary disclosure does not release the assessee from the mischief of penal proceedings.<br /><br />The law does not provide that when an assessee makes a voluntary disclosure of his concealed income, he had to be absolved from penalty," a bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan and A K Sikri said.<br /><br />The apex court dismissed the plea of a company challenging the income tax department's penalty proceedings against it for not disclosing the income.<br /><br />The company MAK Data P. Ltd.contended it had "surrendered" the additional sum of Rs.40,74,000 after the assessing officer issued notice to it with a view to avoiding litigation.<br /><br />The department had initiated penalty proceedings for concealment of income and not furnishing true particulars of its income.<br /><br />The company contended "penalty proceedings are not maintainable on the ground that the AO had not recorded his satisfaction to the effect that there has been concealment of income/furnishing of inaccurate particulars of income by the assessee and that the surrender of income was a conditional surrender before any investigation in the matter".<br /><br />The bench, however, was not satisfied and rejected the plea saying voluntary disclosure of concealed income cannot be a ground to absolve it from penalty.<br /><br />(PTI) </div>
