Treatment of dividend

DEEMED DIVIDEND

The concept of Deemed Dividend under the Income-tax Act, 1961(the Act) is not new. However, time and again many closely held company assessees and their controlling shareholders, to their surprise and dismay, realise very late the importance of this powerful taxing tool in the hands of the Assessing Officer.

The concept of Deemed Dividend is embedded in Section 2(22)(e) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 and was also embedded in section 2(6A)(e) of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922. In nutshell, the concept envisages taxing certain payments made by closely held companies by way of loans or advances to certain shareholders of the company or to the concerns/companies in which they havesubstantial interest. Whenever any payment is made by way of loan or advance, the recipient of the loan or advance will be liable to be taxed on this amount as a dividend, to the extent to which the company has accumulated profits, under the deeming provisions of section 2(22) (e) although such loan or advance may have been given for genuine business purposes and even if the paying company may have received back the loan amount. Thus the section deems certain payments as dividend income which is not income under ordinary commercial parlance. Therefore, the name Deemed dividend.