Tuesday 4 June 2019

Taxability of Specified Agreement under the provisions of Section 45(5A) of the Income Tax Act, 1961


Sub-section (5A) was inserted in section 45 of the Income-tax Act (the Act) with effect from 01.04.2018, i.e., from the assessment year 2018-19. According to section 45(5A) of Income Tax Act, 1961, where the capital gain arises to an assessee, being an individual or a Hindu undivided family, from the transfer of a capital asset, being land or building or both, under a specified agreement, the capital gains shall be chargeable to income-tax as income of the previous year in which the certificate of completion for the whole or part of the project is issued by the competent authority.

Legislative intent for introduction of Section 45(5A)
The Memorandum explaining the provisions of Finance Bill, 2017 states as under with respect to the introduction of Section 45(5A):
With a view to minimise the genuine hardship which the owner of land may face in paying capital gains tax in the year of transfer, it is proposed to insert a new sub-section (5A) in section 45 so as to provide that in case of an assessee being individual or Hindu undivided family, who enters into a specified agreement for development of a project, the capital gains shall be chargeable to income-tax as income of the previous year in which the certificate of completion for the whole or part of the project is issued by the competent authority.

Text of Section 45(5A)
(5A) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), where the capital gain arises to an assessee, being an individual or a Hindu undivided family, from the transfer of a capital asset, being land or building or both, under a specified agreement, the capital gains shall be chargeable  to income-tax as income of the previous year in which the certificate of completion for the whole or part of the project is issued by the competent authority; and for the purposes of section 48, the stamp duty value, on the date of issue of the said certificate, of his share, being land or building or both in the project, as increased by the consideration received in cash, if any, shall be deemed to be the full value of the consideration received or accruing as a result of the transfer of the capital asset:

Provided that the provisions of this sub-section shall not apply where the assessee transfers his share in the project on or before the date of issue of said certificate of completion, and the capital gains shall be deemed to be the income of the previous year in which such transfer takes place and the provisions of this Act, other than the provisions of this sub-section, shall apply for the purpose of determination of full value of consideration received or accruing as a result of such transfer.
Explanation.—For the purposes of this sub-section, the expression—
(i)    “competent authority” means the authority empowered to approve the building plan by or under any law for the time being in force;
(ii)   “specified agreement” means a registered agreement in which a person owning land or  building or both, agrees to allow another person to develop a real estate project on such land or building or both, in consideration of a share, being land or building or both in such project, whether with or without payment of part of the consideration in cash;
(iii) “stamp duty value” means the value adopted or assessed or assessable by any authority of Government for the purpose of payment of stamp duty in respect of an immovable property being  land or building or both.’.
To Whom the Provisions of Section 45(5A) is Applicable
The provisions of section 45(5A) under collaboration agreement will be applicable only in case the land owner is an Individual or a HUF.

Provisions of section 45(5A) shall not apply where the assesse transfers his share in project on or before the date of issue of the said certificate.
The Section 45(5A) shall not apply where the assessee transfers his share in the project on or before the date of issue of said certificate of completion, and the capital gains shall be deemed to be the income of the previous year in which such transfer takes place and the provisions of this Act, other than the provisions of the sub-section, shall apply for the purpose of determination of full value of consideration received or accruing as a result of such transfer. 

KEY NOTE
The Section 45(5A) would not have any impact on the tax liability arising from JDAs entered into by individuals and HUFs in respect of immovable property held as stock-in-trade.

Taxability of Capital gain [Section 45(5A)]
Where the Individual/ HUF entering into specified agreement for development of project

(a)   Where the Individual/ HUF transferring his share in the project on or after the date of issue of completion certificate
Where the capital gain arises to the assesse, being an individual of HUF, from the transfer of capital asset, being land or building or both, under a specified agreement, the capital gain shall be chargeable to income tax as income of the previous year in which the certificate of completion for the whole or part of the project is issued by the competent authority.
(b)  Where the Individual/ HUF transferring his share in the project on or before the date of issue of completion certificate
The capital gains shall be deemed to be the income of the previous year in which such transfer takes place.

KEY NOTE
For the purpose of section 48, the Stamp Duty Value(SDV) of his share, on the date of issue of said certificate, as increased by the consideration received in cash, if any, shall be deemed to be the full value of consideration.

“Specified agreement”
The term “specified agreement” is defined to mean a registered agreement in which a person owning land or building or both, agrees to allow another person to develop a real estate project on such land or building or both, in consideration of a share, being land or building or both in such project, whether with or without payment of part of the consideration in cash [Explanation (ii) to Section 45(5A).

What is Joint Development Agreement (Specified agreement)?
In layman terms, assume that Mr. ‘A’ own a residential land and builder approach him to construct flats on his land. This arrangement is beneficial for both the parties. The reason being Mr. ‘A’ as a landowner will unlock the value of his land without any additional investment of Single Rupee. From builder’s perspective, he need not invest money to buy land. He can use the same money to construct the property. Therefore, for both the parties the capital requirement is minimal. They enter into a Joint Development Agreement wherein landowner pool his land and builder bear the cost of construction to complete the project.

In a Joint Development Agreement (JDA), a landowner contributes his land and enters into an arrangement with the developer to develop and construct a real estate project at the developer’s cost. The developer undertakes the responsibility for the development of property, obtaining approvals, launching, and marketing the project with his financial resource. The land owner may get consideration in the form of either :
(a)     Lump sum consideration; or
(b)     Percentage of sales revenue, or
(c)     A certain percentage of the newly constructed project on the said piece of land

This depends on the terms and conditions, mutually agreed upon by the parties. In this manner, a JDA helps to pool the resources of both the developer as well as the landowner together. After earmarking a certain portion to the landowner, the remaining area is sold off by the developer directly.
Taxability of Joint Development Agreement from the point of view of Land Owner
Land owners liable to capital gains only when the builder completes the construction and gets the completion certificate.
As per the new section 45(5A), capital gains to the land owner arise only after construction of the property is completed and the completion certificate is obtained from the competent authority by the builder/developer.

Taxability of Joint Development Agreement from the point of view of Builder/ Developer
In case of developer, the nature of income would be business income. The property would constitute stock in trade for him. Overall, his income comprises of sale proceeds he gets from the buyers of the developed land and the cost would involve the expenditure incurred on development of the property.

Capital gains earned by the owner in a JDA will be taxed only in the year in which Certificate of Completion for the project (i.e. new property) is issued 
Capital gains earned by the owner in a JDA will be taxed only in the year in which Certificate of Completion for the project (i.e. new property) is issued by the competent authority. It is clarified that even if completion certificate is issued for part of the project, it will be sufficient to trigger the tax. In this situation also, the owner would not receive cash. But then he will have to generate cash by selling the new property.

What will be the full value of consideration in the hands of the land owner
The full value of consideration in the hands of the land owner will be stamp duty value of the portion that the land owner gets after completion of construction.

If the builder pays the land owner any excess amount in cash other than giving him his share of the building after construction then the said amount as received by the land owner in excess of his share of building will be added to the Full value of consideration.

Summary of the Full Value of consideration (FVC) as follows:
FVC (in the hands of the land owner) = Stamp duty value of land owner’s portion + consideration received in cash (if any).

Taxation will not be the same if the land owner before the completion of construction by the builder sells his portion to some other person
The provisions of sub-section (5A) shall not apply where the land owner transfers his share in the project on or before the date of issue of certificate of completion, and capital gains shall arise to the land owner as per the other provisions as applicable under the act and capital gains shall be deemed to be the income of the previous year in which such transfer takes place.

Cost of acquisition of the share in the project being land of Building or both [Section 49(7)]
Where the capital gain arises from the transfer of a capital asset, being share in the project, in the form of land or building or both, referred to in sub-section (5A) of section 45, not being the capital asset referred to in the proviso to the said sub-section, the cost of acquisition of such asset (i.e. acquisition of the share in the project being land or building or both, in the hands of the land owner), shall be the amount which is deemed as full value of consideration in that sub-section 5A of Section 45.

Cost of construction of the land owner’s portion that the owner buys after construction of the complete structure
In a collaboration agreement, if after reconstruction the owner buys a portion of the property and pays the builder for the cost of construction on his portion of the property then the payment given by the owner to the builder for the owner’s portion is construction of a new residential house which is eligible for exemption under section 54 or 54F depending on the nature of capital asset sold as per the terms of agreement.

If the owner of the property sells his portion of the property that he acquired after the collaboration agreement within three years of acquisition, then the exemption taken by the owner in respect of the construction of property will be withdrawn in the year of sale of his portion and the income will be treated as short term capital gain in the year of sale.

On what date will the stamp duty value be considered for calculating full value of consideration (FVC)?
For the purpose of calculating FVC, stamp duty value as on the date when completion certificate is obtained will be considered.

Provisions Illustrated [Section 45(5A)]

S. No.
Particulars
Amount (in Rs.)
(i)
Mr. ‘X’ purchased a residential plot on 01.01.2000 for
50,00,000
(ii)
FMV of plot as on 01.04.2001 is
65,00,000
(iii)
ABC Builders enters into a development agreement with Mr. ‘X’ on 01.05.2017 on the following terms and conditions,
(a)        Mr. ‘X’ will hand over the possession of plot to alpha builders on 01.05.2017.
(b)        ABC Builders will pay a cheque of 60,00,000 to Mr. ‘X’ on 01.05.2017.
(c)        ABC Builders will construct 10 residential units on the plot of land and will give 6 units to Mr. ‘X’. The 10 units will be completed by 30.06.2019 and on that date 6 units will be handed over to Mr. ‘X’
(d)        The stamp duty value of plot as on 01.05.2017 is 2 crore.
(e)        The stamp duty value of each flat on 30.06.2019 is 45,00,000.4



Case 1:  The project completion certificate is issued by the authority on 30.06.2019. 6 units are handed over to Mr. ‘X’ on 30.06.2019.
Case 2:  The project completion certificate is issued by the authority on 30.04.2020 and on that date the stamp duty value of each flat is Rs. 50,00,000. 6 units are handed over to Mr. ‘X’ on 30.04.2020.

Analysis of Example:
·            There is a ‘transfer’ on 01.05.2017 in the hands of Mr. ‘X’ since he has given possession of residential plot pursuant to development agreement.
·            However as per section 45(5A) introduced by Finance Act 2017, the capital gains shall not be taxable in the previous year 31.03.2018 but shall be taxable in the previous year in which the certificate of completion is received from competent authority.
·            Section 45(5A) is applicable since the assesse is an Individual.
·            The holding period of residential plot shall be taken from 01.01.2000 to 30.04.2017 i.e. Long Term.
·            As per section 55, the COA of plot is Rs. 50,00,000 or FMV as on 01.04.2001, whichever is higher. Therefore, COA of plot is Rs. 65,00,000
·            Sale Consideration= SDV on the date of issue of completion certificate of his share plus consideration received in cash.


         Solution : Capital gain shall be worked out as follows:-
Case 1: Assessment Year 2020-21
S. No.
Particulars
Working
Amount (in Rs.)
(i)
Sale Consideration
Stamp Duty Value (SDV) of 6 flats on 30.06.2019 + Cash received
(45,00,000 X 6 + 60,00,000)
3,30,00,000
(ii)
Less: Indexed COA
65,00,000 X272
100
1,76,80,000
(iii)
Long Term Capital Gain

1,53,20,000
Case 1: Assessment Year 2021-22
(i)
Sale Consideration
Stamp Duty Value (SDV) of 6 flats on 30.04.2020 + Cash
(50,00,000 X 6 + 60,00,000)
3,60,00,000
(ii)
Less: Indexed COA
65,00,000 X 272
100
1,76,80,000
(iii)
Long Term Capital Gain

1,83,20,000






Liability to Deduct TDS under Section 194 IC
If the property owner receives any monetary consideration under the JDA, the payer will have to deduct tax at source @ 10%. There is no TDS on paying consideration by way of share in the new property.

Section 194-IC was inserted by the Finance Act, 2017 with effect from 01.04.2017 to deduct TDS on monetary consideration. According to section 194-IC, if under a joint development agreement, any developer pays any amount to the land owner in addition to the share in the project,  then such builder shall deduct TDS @ 10 % on such payment.

This section overrides the provisions contained in section 194-IA of the Act, which provides for deduction of TDS @ 1 % on transfer of immovable property where consideration exceeds Rs 50 Lakhs.
Provisions of Section 194-IC in Brief :
v     There is a TDS applicable on collaboration agreements @ 10% with effect from Assessment year 2018-19. (Section 194IA with 1% TDS is not applicable in this case).
v    Under this section 194IC, the builder has to deduct tax @ 10% on payment of any amount in cash to the land owner for buying his share of property under a collaboration agreement.
v   TDS will be deducted only on the amount paid in cash/cheque by the builder to the land owner and the value or stamp duty value of the land owner’s portion will not be added for the purpose of calculating TDS.
v   TDS will be deducted on the entire amount paid in cash/cheque and not on the amount any capital gains that may arise to the land owner.

GST Applicability to Joint Development Agreement
As per Notification No. 4/2018 – Central Tax (Rate) dated : 25.01.2018, the GST is applicable only on the Landowner and developer transaction.

So When a developer enters into a development agreement with a Landowner, GST would become payable by the Landowner when the developer transfers possession or the rights in the constructed complex, building or civil structure, to the Landowner by entering into a conveyance deed or allotment letter.

Hence, when the Landowner receives a constructed property from the Developer in exchange for providing land, the Landowner would become liable for payment of GST. The GST rate  applicable on such a transaction would be 18%.
Disclaimer: The contents of this document are solely for informational purpose. It does not constitute professional advice or a formal recommendation. While due care has been taken in preparing this document, the existence of mistakes and omissions herein is not ruled out. Neither the author nor its affiliates accepts any liabilities for any loss or damage of any kind arising out of any inaccurate or incomplete information in this document nor for any actions taken in reliance thereon. No part of this document should be distributed or copied (except for personal, non-commercial use).




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