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| Ownership of House property & Deduction on Housing Loan |
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TAX TALK-24.04.2017-THE HITAVADA TAX TALK CA. NARESH JAKHOTIA Chartered AccountantOwnership of House property & Deduction on Housing Loan Income Tax Law recognizes the concept of dual ownership in respect of immovable property i.e., the ownership of plot/ Land by one person and building by another. However, proper documentations / records are to be kept to prove the separate ownership of the assets.
Query 1] My father owns a plot in urban area of Nagpur and wants to gift it to me or my husband or to both based on the clarity on various doubts for which following queries are raised.
“Gift is not only a symbol of love & affection but also a tool for tax planning.” Gift is one of the most commonly used tool for planning or avoiding tax. By gifting the property or assets to other persons, subsequent incomes also get diverted. It has become all the more popular after cessation of Gift tax few years back. However, the concept of taxing gift is almost reintroduced by incorporating section 56(2)(vii) in the Income Tax Act-1961 which make it taxable as “Income from other Source” if the aggregate amount of gift received during the year exceeds Rs. 50,000/-. Exception is provided in respect of following 4 categories of gift/amount i.e., (a) Gift received from Relative (b) Gift received on the occasion of the marriage of an Individual (c) Gift received under a will or by way of inheritance (d) Gift received in contemplation of death of the payer. As mentioned above, gift shall not be taxable as income if it is received from the “Relative”. Section 56(2)(vii) of the Income Tax Act-1961 considers the following person as “Relative” of the individual receiving the gift: (i) spouse of the individual; (ii) brother or sister of the individual; (iii) brother or sister of the spouse of the individual; (iv) brother or sister of either of the parents of the individual; (v) any lineal ascendant or descendant of the individual; (vi) any lineal ascendant or descendant of the spouse of the individual; (vii) spouse of the person referred to in clauses (ii) to (vi). In short, gifts of any amount received from above “relative” would not be taxed & else the recipient could end up being taxed if aggregate amount of gift during the year exceeds Rs. 50,0000/-. [Though the meaning of the word “Relative” appears to be simple, it may not be so. One needs to be very cautious at the time of receiving the gift. At each & every occasion, the transaction of gifts needs to be examined from the angel of recipient. In regular usage, “Relative” is considered to be a cohesive term. If “X” is the relative of “Y”, it is presumed that “Y” is also the relative of “X”. Taxpayers would be surprised to see the abnormal outcome of above definition of “Relative” under section 56(2) (vii) of the Income Tax Act-1961. It may so happen that “X” is the relative of “Y” but “Y” may not be the relative of “X”. For example, if the person is giving a gift to sister’s son then we have to view the transactions from the angel of the recipient (i.e., Son– Bhanja). In this case, the gift is received by recipient from Brother of Mother (Mama) & being covered by above definition of relative in clause (iv), it would not be taxable. Now, if suppose the reverse happens. The sister’s son (Bhanja) offers the gift to the mother’s brother (Mama). Now, the recipient is the Brother of mother of the donor. In this case, donor is not the (i) spouse (ii) brother or sister (iii) brother or sister of the spouse (iv) brother or sister of either of the parents (v) any lineal ascendant or descendant (vi) any lineal ascendant or descendant of the spouse (vii) spouse of the person referred to in clauses (ii) to (vi). Thus, the gift received would be taxable in the hands of the recipient. Though the persons involved are same in both the illustrations given above, the amount would be tax neutral in the first case and taxable in the second case. To summarize, taxpayer need to go through the given definition of “relative” from the angel of recipient i.e., donee and may conclude that relative could be one sided business as far as tax treatment under section 56(2)(vii) is concerned]. In your specific case,
[The author is a practicing Chartered Accountant from Nagpur. Readers may send their direct tax related queries at SSRPN & Co 10, Laxmi Vyankatesh Apartment C.A. Road, Telephone Exch. Square Nagpur-440008 or email it at nareshjakhotia@ssrpn.com] |
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