Taxing Gifts

While gifting is considered a show of gratitude, running afoul of its taxation regulations could land you in trouble

- DINESH KANABAR

GIVING GIFTS TO relatives and others is indeed a way of life in India. It is also a way of transferring wealth to the next of kin. Going through the current marriage season, one witnesses huge spending on weddings, and gifts too. But the taxman looks at gifts with a hawk’s eye. And of late, one has seen a number of cases and judgements on the issue of when a gift is regarded as valid, and the consequences of it not being regarded as such.

Let’s begin with a bit of a background. India had a Gift-Tax Act, 1958, that required the donor to pay a gift tax on the value of the gifts made. So, a person making the gift would give a gift and also pay tax on the taxable value of the gift. While the rates varied from time to time, from 1987, the rate of tax was set at 30 per cent of the value of the gift. The Act was abolished in 1998 and gifts made thereafter were taxfree. In 2004, the Income-tax Act, 1961, was amended to provide that gifts—other than those that are exempted—received by an individual or a Hindu undivided family (HUF) in excess of ₹50,000, would be taxable as income of the recipient.

Effectively, this shifted the tax liability from the donor to the recipient. As it happens, the taxation of gifts began with cash gifts, progressed to all gifts, and went on to provide that transfer of assets for inadequate consideration would be regarded as a gift, and taxed as such. The Act now provides that not only are gifts received by individuals and HUF taxable, but other recipients would also be covered within the ambit of Section 56 of the Income-tax Act (that deals with gifts being deemed as income of the recipient).