ITO v. Pakki Prabhakar Rao And Others (2020) 78 ITR 52 ( SN) (Vishakha) (Trib)

S.45(5A): Capital gains- Joint development agreement -Area-Sharing agreement — Land owner required to pay tax on capital gains at time of entering into development agreement and giving possession of land to developer for construction — Consideration to landlord would be cost of construction to developer [ S.45 ]

Tribunal held that  land owner required to pay tax on capital gains at time of  entering into development agreement and giving possession of  land to developer for construction. Consideration to landlord would be  cost of  construction to developer.   Section 45(5A) was introduced by the Finance Act, 2017 effective from the assessment year 2018-19, prescribing the taxability of area-sharing arrangement under a development agreement in the hands of the land owner, according to which the cost of acquisition of the share in the project being land or building or both, in the hands of the land owner shall be the stamp duty value which was to be the deemed full value of consideration. Hence, it could be presumed that prior to the amendment, the deemed consideration to the landlord would be the cost of construction to the developer. Thus the Assessing Officer had to adopt the cost of construction in the hands of the developer to ascertain the capital gains.( AY.2009-10)