Interest Free Loan from a non-relative is not liable to tax

In a first-of-its-kind judgement, the ITAT Mumbai recently ruled that a recipient of an interest-free loan from a non-relative is not liable to pay tax. The judgement will come as a major relief for people who borrow money from friends and colleagues and latter grapple with notices from tax authorities.

Section 56 (2)(v) of the Income Tax Act provides for taxing any sum of money in excess of Rs 25,000 received without consideration by an individual or a Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) from any source other than a relative. Occasions where the recipient is exempted from tax are during a marriage, or in cases where the amount is received under a will, or by way of inheritance or in contemplation of death of the payer.

Applying this section, an income-tax assessing officer treated interest-free loans amounting to Rs 54.7 lakh received by one Chandrakant Shah from non-relatives as a sum without consideration and taxed it.

The assessee approached the Commissioner of I-T (Appeals), but was not granted relief. He then appealed before the Mumbai ITAT, where his legal counsel said that the lower authorities had “misinterpreted” the new section, which came into effect on September 1, 2004. Furthermore, Mr Shah’s counsel said the sum of interest-free loans taken by him even before that date (September 1, 2004) did not fall within the ambit of the amended section.

Bhupendra Shah, Mr Shah’s counsel, argued before a division bench comprising Madhavi Devi and VK Gupta that an interest-free loan could not be taxed under Section 56 (2)(v), as the repayment of a loan itself is treated as consideration between two parties and not a sum without consideration. The counsel said the amounts were shown in the balance sheet by the assessee as unsecured loan liabilities, and, hence, could not be treated as an addition to capital as in the case of a gift.

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