Can you earn tax-free income from home garden?

If you grow and sell vegetables or fruits from your rooftop garden, additional income remains tax-free in your hands

- Jash Kriplani

Agricultural income is exempt from taxation, but what if you don't own a farmland in a rural area? If you manage a home garden in a city and sell some of your produce, can this income still qualify as agricultural income? Here's what tax experts say.

Land not mandatory

The definition of agricultural income includes income derived from land used for agricultural purposes, said Gautam Nayak, partner at CNK & Associates. "There have been judgments which have allowed income from cultivation in a nursery, where cultivation was done in pots and not on ground, to be considered as agriculture income. In effect, the produce, vegetables or fruits, should be cultivated on soil," said Nayak. So, land itself is not a pre-requisite for defining agricultural income.