The Hindu Business Line : Sharing equally the profit or loss

There should be no difficulty in your apportioning the profit or loss from the dealing in equity and derivates between you and your wife in the proportion of your respective contributions.

I do not have regular income, but I have earned a sum of Rs 60,000 through stock futures and Nifty futures.

Am I liable to pay income tax on such income? If so, what will be my tax liability? — G. Seetharaman

Since your income is below the maximum amount not chargeable to tax, you will have no tax liability on the gain earned from the sale of stock futures and Nifty futures.

I and my husband are income tax assessees and we availed an education loan in December 2007 for our son’s education. We have been paying interest on the said loan since January 2008.

Can I claim any tax benefit in respect of the interest payment?

If so, is it applicable from January 2008 or from the current financial year only?

Is there any limit for claiming the deduction or can the entire interest payment be claimed as deduction.

Can the deduction be claimed both by me and my husband like in the case of housing loan? — Prabha

The deduction under Section 80E is available in respect of the interest on loan taken from a financial institution or approved charitable institution for pursuing higher education either of the individual or his relative and the term relative is defined to mean the spouse and children of the individual.

The term ‘higher education’ will mean full-time studies for any graduate or post graduate course in engineering, medicine, management or for post graduate courses in applied sciences or pure sciences including mathematics and statistics.

The deduction under this Section will be available for a period of eight assessment years, beginning from the year in which the interest on the loan is paid.

Deduction can, therefore, be claimed by you in respect of the interest so long as you satisfy the conditions stated above.

This deduction will be available without a ceiling limit even in respect of the interest paid form January 2008 i.e, the deduction can be claimed even for assessment year 2008-09. The deduction can be claimed by your husband and yourself in respect of that portion of the interest paid by each one of you.

I had joined in a company in Bhutan on November 19, 2007, and hence for the assessment year 2008-09, I was in India for more than 182 days.

I had paid tax on the salary income that I received from my employer, in Bhutan. While filing my return of income in India, do I have to show the income that I received in Bhutan and pay tax as the salary income that I received in India till October 31, 2007, and the salary income received in Bhutan put together exceeds Rs 1 lakh.

From next year onwards my salary income in India will be NIL.

In such case, do I need to file a NIL return in India until I come back to India after completing the 3 years agreement with my employer? — Ajay Kumar Singh

For the assessment year 2008-09, the salary earned by you in Bhutan would be taxable in India.

This would be because you are a resident and ordinarily resident in India in accordance with Section 6 of the Income Tax Act.

India does not have a Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement with Bhutan. Therefore, you can claim the benefit of Section 91 of the Income Tax Act.

Under this Section you can take credit for the tax paid in Bhutan on the salary earned there, but not exceeding the tax payable on such salary in India.

To find out the tax payable on the salary earned in Bhutan, you would have to find out the same by multiplying the salary earned in Bhutan by the average rate of income tax.

The average rate of income tax would be the tax on total income divided by the total income and multiplied by 100.

From the next year onwards when you have no income chargeable to tax in India there would be no requirement for you to file a return of income in India until you come back to India after completing the three-year agreement with your employer.