The assessee for taxation of income from house property must be the owner. An 'owner' of the property is one who can exercise the rights of the owner. The word 'owner' refers to the owner of the property and not to the owner of its annual value. The definition of the term ' owner of house property' has been extended beyond mere legal ownership to also cover the cases of deemed ownership.
A person is deemed as owner in following cases:-
- As transferor of the property to spouse or minor child for inadequate or no consideration
- As holder of an impartible estate or a property in part performance of a contract under the Transfer of Property Act
- As share holder of a co-operative society or a company, who entitles to hold any property, etc.
In case of joint ownership of any property, when the share of each co-owner is definite and ascertainable, it has been provided that each of the owners will be assessed individually in respect of share of income from the property. In other words, income from the property will be determined and allocated to each co-owner according to his share. When each of the co-owners of a property uses it for his residence, each of them will also get the concessional treatment in respect of one self-occupied property.
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