Buying action was seen in almost all real estate stocks with the Nifty Realty index rallying around 1.5% led by gains in DLF, Macrotech, Oberoi Realty, Prestige, and Godrej Properties.
Later, in the day, Sitharaman will move an amendment in the Finance Bill to let taxpayers select either a 12.5% LTCG rate without indexation or a 20% rate with indexation for property acquired before July 23, 2024.
As per the amendments to Finance Bill, 2024, circulated to the Lok Sabha members on Tuesday, individuals or HuF who bought houses before July 23, 2024, can compute his/her taxes under the new scheme [@12.5% without indexation] and old scheme [@20% with indexation] and pay such tax which is lower of the two.
“This is a huge relief to the middle-class owning real estate. There has been a lot of backlash on this proposal over the last few weeks as it was adversely impacting most home-owners particularly where the indexation benefit of the past 23 years of 3.63x of cost was not available to set off against sale consideration resulting in higher tax burden,” says tax expert Harsh Bhuta.He said the amendment helps homeowners minimise tax burden when they sell house properties.The July Budget had slashed LTCG tax on property to 12.5% from 20%, while removing the indexation benefit for properties purchased on or after April 1, 2001.Indexation allows taxpayers to adjust the acquisition cost for inflation before computing capital gains, thereby bringing down the overall tax outgo.