Amitabh Bachchan to pay tax dues worth Rs 1.66 cr, says ’can’t escape’

Mangalore Today /CNN/IBN

Mumbai, Jan 9: A day after the Supreme Court asked actor Amitabh Bachchan to respond to a petition from the Income Tax department, the actor said on Wednesday that he is ready to pay the taxes due. The Income Tax Department had claimed that the superstar owed to it Rs 1.66 crore as taxes on the income he earned through his show ’Kaun Banega Crorepati’ during 2001-02. "Death and I-T are the two things that are permanent in anyone’s life. Whatever the court says, I will obey it," tweeted Bachchan.

 

The Bombay High Court had dismissed an IT Department’s plea on February 29, 2012 after which the department moved the Supreme Court. The IT Department in its petition had alleged that the

actor in his returns filed for the assessment year 2001-02 showed his taxable income to be about Rs 3.23 crore while the Assessing Officer (AO) assessed the money earned by Bachchan to be around Rs 26 crore including the amount he had earned from the TV show.

Earlier in 2008, the high court had allowed I-T exemption on 30 per cent of Bachchan’s total income of Rs 50.92 crore from the show. The High Court had accepted the actor’s plea that being an artiste he should be given tax relief under Section 80 RR of the Income-Tax Act.

The I-T department in its appeal had challenged the order on the ground that the relief is for those artistes who either earn by performing outside the country or receive payment from foreign agencies. It was submitted by the I-T department that Bachchan was acting as an anchor in the television programme show for Star India Ltd and cannot be termed artiste for his role in the show.