New Delhi, Sept. 17 -- A taxpayer cannot be made to pay higher tax merely because an accountant made a clerical error while filing the income tax return, the Delhi bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has held.

In a recent ruling for assessment year 2024-25, the tribunal allowed the appeal of Sanjay Sharma, legal heir of late Divya Kala Sharma, after her accountant incorrectly stated in the ITR that she had filed her return under the old tax regime. The tax computation in the return, however, had been made under the new tax regime under section 115BAC of the Income Tax Act.

The error resulted in the Centralised Processing Centre (CPC), Bengaluru, processing the return under the old tax regime and raising a tax demand. The t...