BOOK PROFIT-SALARY TO PARTNERS AFTER BUDGET 09


(Guest)

In all most all the partnership ,provision for salary has been included and decided with mutual consent .But as per Income Tax Act ,full amount of salary is not allowed as expenses in profit & loss account but salary is restricted to % of profit before salary to the partner.There are some conditions also which are to be complied to claim deduction of salary as expense in P & L account of partnership firm.

 
Conditions are defined in section 40(b) of the income tax act.
  1. Salary should be paid to working partner.
  2. Salary must be written/authorised by the Partnership deed
  3. Salary should be related to the period after the partnership deed date.
  4. Salary must be with in limit of % of Book profit.
Salary here means: salary ,commission ,remuneration (or any name whatever name called)
Now detail of each condition.
 
 
1. Working partner: salary to sleeping partner is not allowed .and working partner definition has been given in explanation 4 of the section 40(b)
  • working partner means an individual who is actively engaged in conducting the affairs of the business or profession of the firm of which he is a partner
From above definition it is clear that " full time" attendance to any or all of the tasks of the partnership .
 
2.Salary must be written/authorised by the Partnership deed:To claim the expense of salary of partner in p& L salary should be authorised by the partnership deed and it should also be according to the conditions/terms defined in the partnership deed.
  • Clause in partnership should be clear and amount should be defined.
  • Board has issued a circular also related to clause in partnership deed for salary to partners
 

Whether for assessment years subsequent to assessment year 1996-97, no deduction under section 40(b)(v) will be admissible unless partnership deed either specifies amount of remuneration payable to each individual working partner or lays down manner of quantifying such remuneration



1. The Board have received representations seeking clarification regarding dis allowance of remuneration paid to the working partners as provided under section 40(b)(v) of the Income-tax Act. In particular, the representations have referred to two types of clauses which are generally incorporated in the partnership deeds. These are :



(i) The partners have agreed that the remuneration to a working partner will be the amount of remuneration allowable under the provisions of section 40(b)(v) of the Income-tax Act; and



(ii) The amount of remuneration to working partner will be as may be mutually agreed upon between partners at the end of the year.



It has been represented that the Assessing Officers are not allowing deduction on the basis of these and similar clauses in the course of scrutiny assessments for the reason that they neither specify the amount of remuneration to each individual nor lay down the manner of quantifying such remuneration.



2. The Board have considered the representations. Since the amended provisions of section 40(b) have been introduced only with effect from the assessment year 1993-94 and these may not have been understood correctly the Board are of the view that liberal approach may be taken for the initial years. It has been decided that for the assessment years 1993-94 to 1996-97 deduction for remuneration to a working partner may be allowed on the basis of the clauses of the type mentioned at 1(i) above.



3. In cases where neither the amount has been quantified nor even the limit of total remuneration has been specified but the same has been left to be determined by the partners at the end of the accounting period, in such cases payment of remuneration to partners cannot be allowed as deduction in the computation of the firms income.



4. It is clarified that for the assessment years subsequent to the assessment year 1996-97, no deduction under section 40(b)(v) will be admissible unless the partnership deed either specifies the amount of remuneration payable to each individual working partner or lays down the manner of quantifying such remuneration.

Circular : No. 739, dated 25-3-1996.

 
The above circular is very clear so ,from ay 1996-97 onwards amount should be defined in the partnership deed.
 
 
3.Salary should be related to the period after the partnership deed date: The salary as per partnership deed should be after the partnership deed.If payment is related to period earlier than the date of partnership deed ,then it will be disallowed as exp.
 
4.Salary must be with in limit of % of Book profit.: As per section following % has been defined with in which salary can be claimed for partners.% chart is given below
(1) in case of a firm carrying on a profession referred to in section 44AA or which is notified for the purpose of that section
(a) on the first Rs. 1,00,000 of the book-profit or in case of a loss Rs. 50,000 or at the rate of 90 per cent of the book-profit, whichever is more;
(b) on the next Rs. 1,00,000 of the book-profit at the rate of 60 per cent;
(c) on the balance of the book-profit at the rate of 40 per cent;
(2)in the case of any other firm
(a) on the first Rs. 75,000 of the book-profit, or in case of a loss Rs. 50,000 or at the rate of 90 per cent of the book-profit, whichever is more;
(b) on the next Rs. 75,000 of the book-profit at the rate of 60 per cent;
(c) on the balance of the book-profit at the rate of 40 per cent:

 

THE ABOVE RATES HAS BEEN PROPOSED TO BE CHANGED FROM 01.04.2010 means from financial year 2010-11 AS UNDER

  •  Common rate for both type of Firm whether covered under 44AA or not 
New Rates proposed in Budget 2009
  • On the First three lakh of the Profit or In case of Loss: 150000 or 90 % of profit which ever is more
  • On balance profit:60% of the profit
Profession notified under section 44AA
  • legal, medical, engineering or architectural profession or the profession of accountancy or technical consultancy or interior decoration ,profession of authorised representative, the profession of film artist (actor, cameraman, director, music director, art director, dance director, editor, singer, lyricist, story writer, screen play writer, dialogue writer and dress designer),Profession of Company Secretary,Profession of Information Technology.
Calculation Of book Profit.
  1. Take profit as per P& L account.
  2. Add back salary given to partners if debited in p& L earlier.
  3. Make adjustment for expenses allowed/disallowed as per section 28- 44D.
  4. If expenses /Income of other head like house property or income from other sorcse ,capital gain has been debited /credit then reverse back the such amount from profit & loss account.
  5. As the depreciation b/f is covered under section 32(2) ,so adjustment should be made for b/f depreciation to calculate the book profit but adjustment can be done only upto maximum of profit of current year before depreciation minus b/f loss of the previous years .

Suppose

 
Profit as per P & L = 220850
Depreciation =111474.00
Net profit after depreciation =109376
salary of partner given =108000


 
Now salary allowed as per section 40(b) is given below
Book profit=109376


  • If firm is covered under 44AA(profession prescribed):
  1. On first 100000=90% of 100000=90000
  2. On balance 9376 @ 60%=5626
Total allowed=90000+5626=95626
 
  • if firm is not covered under above; any other firm
  1. On first 75000=90% of 100000=67500
  2. On (109376-75000=34376) @ 60%=20986
Total allowed :67500+20986=88486