A Lot about TDS on Sale of Property #Section 194IA

There is a statutory requirement u/s 139A of Income-tax Act r/w rule 114B of the Income-tax Rules, 1962 to quote Permanent Account Number (PAN) in documents pertaining to purchase or sale of immovable property for value of Rs.5 lakh or more. However, the information furnished to the department in Annual Information Returns by the Registrar or Sub-Registrar indicated that most of purchasers or sellers of immovable properties, valued at Rs.30 lakh or more, during the financial year 2011-12 did not quote or quoted invalid PAN in the documents relating to transfer of the property. Under the existing provisions of the Income-tax Act, tax is required to be deducted at source on certain specified payments made to residents by way of salary, interest, commission, brokerage, professional services, etc. On transfer of immovable property by a non-resident, tax is required to be deducted at source by the transferee. However, there is no such requirement on transfer of immovable property by a resident except in the case of compulsory acquisition of certain immovable properties. In order to have a reporting mechanism of transactions in the real estate sector and also to collect tax at the earliest point of time, it is proposed to insert a new section 194-IA to provide that every transferee, at the time of making payment or crediting of any sum as consideration for transfer of immovable property (other than agricultural land) to a resident transferor, shall deduct tax, at the rate of 1% of such sum. To reduce the compliance burden on the small taxpayers, it is further proposed that no deduction of tax under this provision shall be made where the total amount of consideration for the transfer of an immovable property is less than fifty lakh rupees. This amendment took effect from 1st June 2013