Financial Analyst
124 Points
Joined August 2007
Tenancy rights is a capital asset. Hence, the amount received on sale of such an asset is chargeable to tax under, ‘Capital gain'. If you have paid any amount to the landlord for acquiring the tenancy rights, you can claim the benefit of indexed cost of acquisition. If no amount is paid for acquisition, then indexed cost of acquisition will be nil. If these assets were acquired by gift, or will, under Section 49(1) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, and the previous owner had purchased these assets, then your cost will be the cost to the previous owner.
Whether expenditure made on renovation of property can be claimed as deduction is a debatable matter. For claiming the benefit of cost of improvement, the expenditure must be of capital nature and it must be incurred for addition or alteration to the capital asset. Here, the capital asset is the tenancy right and not property. Hence, expenditure made on renovation cannot be claimed as deduction as it is not incurred for addition or alteration to the tenancy right. However, as mentioned earlier, the matter is open to litigation.
Long-term-capital-gain (LTCG) can be saved by investing the amount in bonds issued by the National Highway Authority of India and the Rural Electrification Corporation. This is covered under Section 54EC. LTCG can also be saved under Section 54F by purchasing a residential house property (old or new) or construct a residential house property within the time limit: A home should be purchased within one year before or within two years after the date of transfer of the original asset. The construction of a new home should be completed within three years from the date of transfer of the original asset.