The Hindu Business Line : Get HRA rebate till you move into own house

I purchased a flat in December 2007 and started paying the pre-EMI from February 2008 on the housing loan. I was paying the pre-EMI until September 2008 and started paying the EMI from October 2008.

The construction was completed in January 2009 but I can get the flat registered in my name only in March. I am now staying in a rented house.

Can I get exemption u/s 10(13A) for the house rent allowance as well as for the pre-EMI interest and EMI? – Sharavanan B.

If you have receipts of house rent allowance and if you are paying rent, exemption u/s 10(13A) will be available. Section 24, which allows a deduction in respect of interest on capital borrowed for purchase/construction of a house property, permits this deduction for the interest that relates to the previous year in which the property is acquired or constructed.

The interest prior to the year when the property was acquired or constructed is to be claimed in five equal annual instalments beginning from the year when the property is purchased or acquired.

In your case, the interest for February and March 2008 relate to the year before the year when the property was acquired.

The interest of these two months will have to be claimed in five equal annual instalments beginning from 2008-09 (assessment year 2009-10). The interest for April 2008 to September 2008 and also the interest from October 2008 to March 2009 can be claimed in full in 2008-09 (assessment year 2009-10).

I am a salaried person who had a son with hearing impairment. My son underwent an operation for cochlear implantation and I spent around Rs 6 lakh for it. Can I get any tax benefit for the treatment expenses? – Dr. Arvind Singh

Section 80DD allows a deduction to an individual or HUF if the person has incurred in the previous year any expenditure on medical treatment (including nursing), training and rehabilitation of a dependant with a disability or paid or deposited any amount under a scheme framed in this behalf by an insurer for the maintenance of a dependant with a disability.

A person with a disability is one suffering from not less than 40 per cent of a disability (as certified by a medical authority working in a hospital or institution notified by the Government), which could be blindness, low vision, leprosy – cured, hearing impairment, locomotor disability, mental retardation, mental illness.

Hearing impairment, for this purpose, means a loss of 60 decibels or more in the better ear in the conversational range of frequencies.

A person with disability also includes one suffering from autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation or a combination of any two or more. Section 80DD allows a deduction of up to Rs 50,000 a year and if the disability is severe, up to Rs 75,000 a year. Severe disability means a person with 80 per cent or more of the disability. You can claim deduction if your fits into these categories.

Is it mandatory to provide the details of previous employment to the new employer in Form 12B? – Avinash Shrivastava

Section 192(2) provides that where an assessee is employed under more than one employer or has held successive employment under more than one employer, he “may” furnish to the person responsible for making the payment – which may be any one of the employers as the assessee may choose – such details of his income under the head salaries received from the other employer or employers.

If the details are so furnished in the prescribed form, the person responsible for making the payment “shall” it into account for deducting tax at source.

The usage of “may” and “shall” shows that the employee has the option of furnishing the said particulars. It is, therefore, not mandatory to provide the details of the previous employment to the new employer in Form 12B.

Mail your queries to

taxtalk@thehindu.co.in

or by post to ‘Tax Talk’, Business Line, Kasturi Buildings,

859, Anna Salai, Chennai-600002

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