Income Tax Rules On Home Loan To Change From Saturday. Details Here

To address the anomaly of interest deduction in respect of let-out property vs self-occupied property, the government has changed income tax rules, which will come into effect from next financial year April 1, 2017 (assessment year 2018-19). In this regard, the government has cut down tax benefits borrowers enjoyed on properties let out on rent. According to current tax laws, for properties rented out, a borrower could deduct the entire interest paid on home loan after adjusting for the rental income. On the other hand, borrowers of self-occupied properties get Rs 2 lakh deduction on interest repayment on home loan.

(Read: Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana: How To Apply For Home Loan Interest Subsidy)

However, on rented properties, effective from April 1, interest paid above Rs. 2 lakh can be carried forward for eight assessment years. Since the interest component of home loan repaid in initial years is higher, experts say that the borrower may not be able to fully adjust the interest paid as deduction even in subsequent years.

For example, your interest outgo on a second property is Rs. 5 lakh in a particular year. Assume that you are earning a rent of Rs. 1.5 lakh annually from the property. Such buyers, according to the current rule, are allowed to adjust the difference of Rs. 3.5 lakh (Rs. 5 lakh interest minus Rs. 1.5 lakh). But from the next financial year, they will be allowed deduction of just Rs. 2 lakh. The remaining amount of Rs. 1.5 lakh (Rs. 3.5 lakh minus Rs. 2 lakh) can be carried forward up to eight financial years and be adjusted later.

(Also Read: Less Than A Week To Save Income Tax. How To Do It)

Tax experts say that some high net worth individuals, who used to buy properties on loan and were able to set off the full interest liability against the lettable value of property and thus bring down their tax liability substantially, would be particularly hit from this new tax rule.

(Also Read:10 Income Tax Rules That Will Change From April, See Details Here)

From April another tax rule related to the properties will also change. The new tax rule will help bring down tax liability from property sale. The holding period of a property for qualifying under long-term gains will get reduced to two years, from three years currently. As per current tax norms, if a property is sold within three years of buying, the profit from the transaction is treated as short-term capital gain and is taxed according to the slab rate applicable to him/her. So reducing this time period to two years will bring down tax liability.

Thus, after two years, the transaction will be able to qualify for long-term capital gains, thus lower taxes. Under long-term capital gains on immovable properties, the profit is taxed at 20 per after indexation. Under indexation, inflation during the holding period is taken into account and thus the purchase price is adjusted, reducing the tax burden on the property seller. There are also other benefits for the seller under the long-term capital gains tax. If the gains are invested in some select government investment schemes, the tax liability goes down significantly.

(Know Your Tax Liability Here)