Taxes on assets, income, capital gains and gifts have been under various regulators and governing bodies but the taxation and the quantum of tax levied has been subject to various conditions and situations.

Taxes on assets, income, capital gains and gifts have been under various regulators and governing bodies but the taxation and the quantum of tax levied has been subject to various conditions and situations. As far as the gifts received from relatives, be it in form of cash or cash equivalents to immovable gifts such as land, building, etc., some of these things are subject to tax rules while some aren’t.

For instance, if you have received a gift worth Rs 50,000 from your father and same quantum of gift from brother-in-law. During the assessment by Income Tax Officer, if both the donors can be identified as ‘relatives’ and the said gifts were received through proper banking channels, then there is a possibility that these gifts may not get taxed which is further subject to fulfilment of several other terms.

With respect to section 56 of the Income-Tax Act, 1961, the donors should qualify as relatives under the ITO assessment as the Act states that there is a provision of tax exemption if the gifts are received from relatives. But if the occasion on which the gifts were received were not quoted by you then the Income Tax Officer may assert that these gifts would be subject to income tax. Please note, there is no necessary condition that you have to disclose an occasion when the gifts were received, if received from relatives.

According to the Sections 56 of the Income-Tax Act, it is also advent that, if the quantum of gift exceeds Rs 50,000 and is received from non-relatives then the it would fall under the tax net under “income from other sources”. However, there is no such upper limit on the quantum of gifts, if it is from qualified relatives.