Tribunal after examining the evidence upheld the order of CIT(A) and concluded that the respondent was an investor in shares and entitled to be taxed under the head capital gains in respect of purchase and sale of shares. The Tribunal after examining the facts found that the respondent had not borrowed any funds for its investments and that the long terms gains were attributable to only shares of 4 companies and 3 of them were held for a period of about 5 to 12 years. So far as short terms capital gains were concerned the Tribunal held that about 93% of the short terms gain/loss was attributable to shares of six companies and in any case all the shares were held for periods ranging in excess of 1 month.

Owners have entered into an agreement for development of the property and certain rights were assigned to the developer who in turn had made the substantial payment and consequently entered into the property and thereafter if the transferee has taken any steps in relation to construction of the flats, then it is to be considered as transfer u/s. 2(47)(v) of the I.T. Act.

Section 54F of I.T. Act, 1961 aims to provide for the 100% exemption to an individual or HUF from the chargeability of Long Term Capital Gain (LTCG) that arises from the transfer of a capital asset other than a residential house (residential house being already covered u/s 54) where the assessee invests the entire amount of net consideration in a residential house within the prescribed time limit subject to the fulfillment of other conditions mentioned in the said section and also for a proportionate exemption where entire amount of net consideration is not invested but only a portion of it is utilized for the acquisition/ construction of a residential house.

We know that investment in residential property or Flats is one of the common investment avenue for individuals. Here we are trying to summarise the tax implication on sale of residential property and tax planning to save tax on the Capital Gain arising on the sale of such property.

Currently, long term capital gain arising from sale of unlisted securities in the case of Foreign Institutional Investors is taxed at the rate of 10% while other non-resident investors, including Private Equity investors are taxed at the rate of 20%. In order to give parity to such investors, I propose to reduce the rate in their case from 20% to 10% on the same lines as applicable to FIIs.

Where Land Revenue records showed no crop was cultivated and no agricultural activity was undertaken on the land owned by the assessee before sale thereof and assessee produced no evidence of user for agricultural purposes other than sketchy and vague statements of neighbours, denial of deduction by AO under section 54B deserved to be upheld.

Whether conversion of tenancy rights into ownership right falls under the realm of ‘transfer’ as envisaged in section 2(47) of the Act. The assessee was accepted as a tenant by the co-owners and as per the well settled law on this issue the tenancy cannot be equated with the ownership. The ownership is the bundle of rights but rights of the tenants are limited. Admittedly, the assessee’s tenancy was converted into ownership and that can be the subject matter of the capital gain as it is a ‘transfer’ within the meaning of section 2(47) r.w.s. 45 of the I.T. Act.

The existing restriction in exemption u/s. 54EC is clearly an attempt to prevent home owners from fully enjoying the benefits. The treatment of long-term capital gains (LTCG) has been a contentious issue in recent years. Section 54EC of the Income-tax Act, 1961, exempts from taxation capital gains arising from transfer of a long term capital asset, provided the assessee invests the whole or part of the capital gains in long term specified assets for three years.

In this case, there is no dispute that no dividend had been paid to any of the shareholders after 1.4.2003 on which date Section 115-O of the Act was introduced in its present form. The accumulation in the reserves was allowed to be increased considerably. It may be noted that the major shares are held by the ‘A’ group and only 1.76% of shares are outstanding with the general public. The payment of dividend in the normal course by a company making profits, would have meant that the applicant would have been obliged to pay tax on distribution of profits to its shareholders.

Mr. Sanghai had sold a commercial property, which was a long term asset and invested the same in purchase and construction of a flat in a apartment in Mumbai, within the one year of sale of asset and claimed deduction u/s 54F of income tax act, but later the builder has not completed the possession of the apartment within 3 years and the apartment remained under construction even after 3 years. The period of 3 years is lapsed without any mistake of Mr. Sanghai Now?