₹66 lakh tax penalty over son’s ₹1.1 crore flat: How senior citizen won ITAT relief

A senior citizen in Navi Mumbai faced a ₹2.20 crore tax addition after the Income Tax Department treated two documents for the same flat as separate purchases. The ITAT granted relief, highlighting why joint ownership alone does not establish who funded a property and why payment records matter.

A property investment intended to help a family secure a home turned into a tax dispute for a senior citizen in Navi Mumbai after her son included her as a joint owner of a flat purchased for ₹1.10 crore. The Income Tax Department treated two documents relating to the same property as separate purchases and subsequently made a ₹2.20 crore addition to her taxable income.

However, the Mumbai bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), in an order dated 23 September 2026, granted relief to the senior citizen after finding that the same property transaction had been counted twice.

What are the basic facts of the case?

Jaishri Pande, a senior citizen with no independent source of income, had not filed an income tax return for the relevant assessment year. The tax authorities initiated scrutiny after the Risk Management System (RMS) flagged two entries relating to property transactions, each valued at ₹1.10 crore.

The entries were dated 18 September and 5 November 2015. The assessing officer (AO) treated them as two separate purchases and reopened her assessment. A notice under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, was issued on 26 March 2023. On 29 February 2024, the AO completed the reassessment and added ₹2.20 crore as an ‘unexplained investment’. The department also imposed penalties totalling about ₹66.2 lakh.