A tricky problem

Abhijit (CA final Student) (214 Points)

12 December 2010  

Friends here is a weekend food for thought:

Suppose A company calls for tender for contruction of a Plant, before submitting the tender the respondents are required to deposit an earnest money which on acceptance of the tender is converted to Security Deposit. After the tender process is over the company set aside the earnest money refundable to the unsuccessful bidders and issued cheques to them, but many people did not turn  up to getting their money back, what will be the tax treatment and accounting treatment of the earnest money which still has not been collected. Please mention the reasons.