It is a measure of inflation that finds application in tax law, when computing long-term capital gains on sale of assets. Section 48 of the Income-Tax Act defines the index as what is notified by the Central Government every year, having regard to 75 per cent of average rise in the consumer price index (CPI) for urban non-manual employees for the immediately preceding previous year.

The indexed cost of acquisition has to be determined with reference to the cost inflation index for the first year in which the capital asset was ‘held by the assessee’. Since the expression ‘held by the assessee’ is not defined under Section 48 of the Act, that expression has to be understood as defined under Section 2 of the Act. Explanation 1(i)(b) to Section 2(42A) of the Act provides that in determining the period for which an asset is held by an assessee under a gift, the period for which the said asset was held by the previous owner shall be included.

Calculate Long term capital gain on sale of capital Assets other then shares with the help of Indexation.- We have given below the Cost Inflation (CII) Index calculator which automatically calculates Indexed cost of your asset. In the calculator You just have to fill the Year of Sale, Year of Purchase , Cost of Purchase/Acquisition/Improvement and Index if sale is made in financial year 2011-12 or later. Cost Inflation Index for financial Year 2011-12 is 785 and for financial year 2012-13 the Index will be announced somewhere in August 2012.

This article summarizes a recent ruling of the Special Bench (SB) of the Mumbai Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) [ITA No. 7315/Mum/2007] in the case of DCIT vs. Manjula Shah (Taxpayer) which held that, in the case of gifted capital asset, indexation benefit is available to a donee from the year of its acquisition by the previous owner. The SB adopted a purposive construction of the definition of ‘Indexed Cost of Acquisition’ (ICOA) by looking at the scheme of the Indian Tax Law (ITL), which seeks to grant the benefit of cost and holding period of the previous owner to the donee.

According to a recent decision of the Mumbai bench of the Income Tax Apellate Tribunal, non-resident companies and individuals are entitled to a beneficial rate of tax of 10% on long-term capital gains arising from the sale of shares of listed entities. Earlier, non-resident assessees were taxed at the rate of 20%.

The assessee transferred a capital asset which was received by her by way of gift on 1.2.2003. The previous owner had acquired the capital asset on 29.1.1993. In computing capital gains, the assessee claimed that the indexed cost of acquisition had to be worked out by taking the date of acquisition by the previous owner.

The new draft Direct Taxes Code proposes to tax capital gains as regular income at normal tax rates, thereby removing the benefits of lower rates for long-term capital gains on sale of shares.

Foreign companies cannot be discriminated vis-a-vis Indian firms so far as capital gains tax on securities transaction is concerned, according to an order by the Authority for Advance Rulings (AAR). Giving its ruling in a case related to UK-based Fujitsu Services, AAR said the company should also be given an option of paying tax at [...]

Markets have stopped trading for the day as the benchmarks hit another upper circuit Monday as soon as the trade resumed after 2 hour break. Investors are euphoric after the United Progressive Alliance emerged victorious in the 2009 general elections. Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex was locked at 14272.62 up 2099.21 points or 17.24 per cent. National Stock Exchange’s [...]

The merger of Reliance Pertroleum (RPL) with Reliance Industries (RIL) is the latest in a long string of amalgamations and mergers that have taken place over time in the Reliance group. As per the arrangement announced by RIL, RPL shareholders of RPL will get one share of RIL for every 16 RPL shares held by [...]