| 21/5/2012 |
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| Board of Special Commissioners - Cases |
| Case No. 19/89 |
Decided: 5 May, 1992 |
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The law does not exempt any person, however illiterate, from the obligation to maintain the records required to be kept by article 19, Income Tax Management Act; the Board substitutes its own assessment for that of the Commissioner - article 35(4), Income Tax Management Act
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Appellant objected against the Commissioner's assessments, basing his argument mainly on the fact that he had a medical condition that prevented him from giving all his energy to his trading activity. During the hearing appellant had declared that he was illiterate and had not kept any trade records and had not submitted a profit and loss account to the tax returns for some of the years under appeal.
The Board held that it was true that appellant was illiterate but the law did not exempt any person from the obligation to maintain such records as would enable the Commissioner to ascertain that person's income and relative deductions. Even though appellant may not have been expected to maintain a sophisticated set of trade records, he should have kept at least some form of record of his sales, purchases and expenses. He could have used simple copybooks or asked for help, at least from some member of his family.
The Board held that appellant had not substantiated his tax declarations, especially because the increase in his capital assets could not be explained by the income declared in his tax returns. However the Board felt that the Commissioner's assessments were slightly on the high side and, therefore, substituted the Commissioner's assessments with its own.
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