I have taken a House Loan for a new house which is far away ( around 16KM ) from my office.( My new house and office are in same city ).I am staying for rent near to my office.As of now my parents are staying at new house which was bought on House Loan.and I stay with my wife at the rented house.CAN I CLAIM BOTH HRA AND HOUSE LOAN FOR TAX BENEFITS ?
Ans:
As per income tax act both benefits are independent of each other and there is no relation what to so ever in claiming HRA exemption and House loan interest ,if person fulfill conditions to avail benefit given in ACT than he can claim ,and condition is be checked separately for each section.If law has not given any condition or linking in both the sections than why DDO are linking it ,I don't know.lets discuss with provision of the act.
HRA EXEMPTION(HRA EXEMPTION HOW TO CALCULATE)
To claim HRA Exemption following point/condition to be satisfied.
Persons has a salary income and Getting House rent allowance
person has actually incurred expenditure on payment of rent (by whatever name called) in respect of the residential accommodation occupied by him.
The residential accommodation occupied by the assessee should not be owned by him.
In your case you full fill all the above condition ,means have a salary income ,getting hra ,paying rent and residing in Rented house.so you are eligible to claim HRA exemption irrespective of your house loan interest claim.
House loan Interest claim.
while calculating income from house property first annual value of house is to be determined.
House is let out (value will be according to Rent received)
House is self occupied by the owner for own residence. (annual value will be nil)
house cannot actually be occupied by the owner by reason of the fact that owing to his employment, business or profession carried on at any other place, he has to reside at that other place in a building not belonging to him(annual value will be nil)
in situation two and three value of house annual will not be nil if
the house or part of the house is actually let during the whole or any part of the previous year; or
any other benefit therefrom is derived by the owner.
more over if asssessee has more than one house which full fill condition two or three above than he can take this benefit of annual value as nil ,only on one house at his option.means Income tax act permits that a person can have more than one self occupied house but he can avail benefit only for one house and other houses will be deemed to be let out.
now in your case you are living in rented house so you are satisfying condition of Hra so you can claim hra exemption.
In case of your own house ,the house is self occupied by you ,it doesn't matter if you are going to house at weekend or monthly and your parents are living in your own house,it is covered under definition of self occupied under income tax act.As I have clarified above In income tax act self occupied definition is not the same as we generally taken and as per act person can have more than one house as self occupied ,and as per income tax self occupied means
house is not let out for whole or part the previous year
no any other benefit therefrom is derived by the owner
so you can claim house loan interest.
but i think you are covering yourself in condition three above i.e
"house cannot actually be occupied by the owner by reason of the fact that owing to his employment, business or profession carried on at any other place, he has to reside at that other place in a building not belonging to him"
and want to clarify whether this condition is applicable in same city or not.Though in my opinion your house is self occupied as I have clarified above yet for your clarification in above condition also there is no condition that your own house can not be in same city.At any other place does not mean any other city it can be in same city ,but there should be nexus between non occupation of your house and your employment,business or profession
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