No need to file income tax return if buying property or selling without capital gains

Should I file income tax return (ITR) if I purchase of property for above Rs 30 lakh; sell a property without any capital gain and give gifts to relatives?

– Pardeep Kapi

For purchase of property for above Rs 30 lakh, no ITR filing is required, as there is no provision mandating filing of ITR only due to purchase of property, assuming that property has been purchased in India. For sale of property without any capital gain, no ITR is required. However if there is loss on sale such property, then you can report these losses and carry forward to next financial year for set-off against any capital gains by filing an ITR. For gifts to relative, no ITR filing is required.

* We have a property in Bangalore which will be acquired by metro BMRCL. We were told that 10% tax will be deducted at source. Can I claim the TDS?

Yes, you can claim the refund of TDS by filing ITR for the year in which the tax will be deducted. For filing ITR, you will need to calculate capital gain on such property, i.e., sales price- cost of acquisition (the cost will be indexed as per income tax provisions if the property is held for more than two years). If your total income including this gain would be less than the minimum exemption limit, i.e., Rs 2.5 lakh (Rs 3 lakh and Rs 5 lakh for senior and super senior citizen respectively), you can claim refund of the entire TDS amount.

* Though I have not got my Form 16, can I start filing ITR for 2018-19 now?

—Ashok Kumar

Yes, you can start filing ITR for FY 2018-19 as the forms have also been notified. However, your company would be filing its TDS return by May 31, 2019 and your TDS for the quarter January-March 2019 would not reflect in your Form 26AS till then. If you still want to proceed, then you can refer to 26AS that will be reflecting TDS till December 2018 and all payslips from April-March 2019 and make a calculation of your taxable salary and file the return.

* On retirement, my father received gratuity, leave encashment and commuted pension . He also got salary income, pension and interest from bank. Which ITR form should he use?

—SM Gopalkrishnan

As your father has salary and interest income and assuming that he is a resident in India, he has to file his return in Form ITR 1. Tax-free amount received on retirement must be reported in ITR.