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Joint bank account: taxability query

yashsr (CA) (2285 Points)

24 March 2012

Hello,

If there is a joint account between 2 persons who have no relation to each other, in whose income/balance sheet does it have to be taxed/shown? Usually its a practice to show it in the name of the person who is the primary holder of the account or whose name appears first. But is there any chance we can show it in another person's name? Can we by any chance divide everything into 2 and show it?

Is the situation any different if both of the joint account holders are related to each other? What if they're husband & wife?

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2 Replies

Praveen Kumar (Certified Accounting Technician) (58 Points)
Replied 04 April 2012

We also had a similar case though slightly different as the case was taken up for scrutiny u/s 143 (2) calling up the primary holder of the joint bank acct & askingher to explain the transactions in her acct which were mostly done by the second holder. We could explain all the transactions to the satisfaction of the AO & also showed that the correspondig entries were there in the books of both the parties by clearly bifurcating them. The issue got resolved. Yes, both of them has to show their individual balances in the joint bank acct in their respective B/S naming it as "Joint Acct - Bank Bal". Thnx for the opportunity

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Member (Management) (325 Points)
Replied 05 April 2012

The most practical way of looking at it is to see how the account is operated. If it is to be operated jointly i.e. only with the signature of both the parties, then it can be taken that they have equal share. Else the first named person who usually operates the account can be said to be the owner of the funds parked in that account. Of course, this may not always be that clear cut, but will change from case to case.

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