Can my wife claim rebate on home loan interest? : The Tribune India

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Can my wife claim rebate on home loan interest?

Q.I, my wife, my father and my mother had taken a house building loan from a nationalised bank for constructing a house.

Can my wife claim rebate on home loan interest?


S. C. Vasudeva

Q.I, my wife, my father and my mother had taken a house building loan from a nationalised bank for constructing a house. The land on which the house was constructed is in the name of my parents. The house is in a village and not in a municipal area. The water connection, house tax is on my name. My wife and I are repaying the loan regularly to the bank. Father and mother have not repaid any money to the bank. My parents have made a Will in my favour regarding the land on which the house has been constructed.

My queries are:

  • Can I avail HBA tax rebate under Section 24 of income tax for the interest paid on the loan?
  • Can my wife can take the HBA tax rebate under Section 24 of income tax for the interest paid? — Rajesh Kumar

A.Deduction under Section 24 of the Income Tax Act 1961 in respect of interest paid on house building loan is allowed to an owner of the house. It is possible under the Indian law that the house is owned by a person other than the person who owns the land on which the house has been constructed. In case your father and mother have permitted you to construct a house on the land owned by them, it should be possible to claim that the house is owned by you, and therefore, you are entitled to claim deduction allowable under Section 24 of the Act. It would be advisable to execute a document with regard to the permission granted to you by your parents for the construction of the house on the land owned by them.

You have stated in the query that permission has been granted to you for constructing the house and the water connection and house tax is in your name. This implies that you are the owner of the house. Your wife is, therefore, not entitled to claim the deduction for interest paid in respect of the amount borrowed for construction of the house as she is not the owner of the house.

Stamp duty on transfer of property

Q. Five members of our family have some joint land in a rural area. We want to change the ownership of this from joint to individual shares in revenue records. Kindly advise us in this regard in view of the following points:

  • We have land property in rural area
  • Transfer fees for blood relation is 1 per cent
  • In our case minimum 2 acre and maximum 8 acre has been transferred in each other’s name from one side to the other side in the same village. Do we need to pay 6 per cent stamp duty. In our case we are just changing ownership and it is not a new purchase, so how can we minimum stamp duty? — Rasal Singh

A.It is presumed that the transfer has to take place between brothers and sisters or from father to his children. The state of Punjab now permits transfer of immovable property between blood relatives by payment of stamp duty @1 per cent of the market value. In the circumstances it would be advisable to adopt gift route for the transfer of property between the blood relations.

Share in grandfather’s property

Q.My great grandfather had been allotted a house in Patiala in lieu of his house in Pakistan through the Presidents Reallocation Scheme in 1964. He had six children (five daughters and one son). he had bequeathed the house to my grandfather through a registered Will. My grandfather had three children (two sons and one daughter). He made a registered Will in favour of my grandmother regarding this house. My grandmother made a registered Will maintaining that she would not sell the property in her lifetime and named her sons (i.e. my father and uncle) as co-owners of the house after her death. In the meantime all the legal heirs (i.e. my father, uncle, grandmother and aunt) sold a piece of house with mutual consent. After my father’s death my grandmother has refused to give us our share in the property under the influence of my uncle. After that we went to court to get our share the case is going on at the Patiala Civil Court. After that my grandmother under the pressure of my uncle changed her registered Will in favour of my uncle.

My queries are:

  • In this case of ancestral property are we on the right track of getting petition of house as legal heirs of our father?
  • Can my grandmother nad uncle deny us our share in the property?
  • Can my grandmother change her registered Will after the death of my father and the petition filed by us?
  • Is there any hope of getting our share through the legal process?
  • What should be our immediate course of action in this case? — Amerbir Singh

A.Your queries are replied hereunder:

  • The issue whether the house received by your great grandfather in lieu of his house in Pakistan was a self-acquired property or an ancestral property of your great grandfather requires to be settled in the first instance. From the facts given in the query, it seems that it was a self-acquired property of your great grandfather, and therefore, it was inherited by your grandfather and not an ancestral property. If this view is correct, the question of partition of ancestral property should not arise.
  • According to the facts given in the query, your grandmother acquired a life interest in the property after the death of your grandfather. According to the Will after her death, the property would have devolved on your father, your uncle and your aunt. The amount realised on the sale of a portion of the house property should have been divided in four shares and your father would have been entitled to 1/4th share in sale proceeds of the property. The said 1/4th share can be demanded by the legal heirs of your father from your grandmother.
  • Your grandmother has the right to change her Will.
  • In case there is any unsold portion of the property, you can claim 1/4th share in such unsold property also.
  • Your grandmother has only a life interest in the property, and therefore, she does not have a right to make a Will in respect of such life interest in the property inherited by her from her husband.

email your queries to [email protected]

 

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