Defination of Income
In order to tax the income of a person the term itself is
designed under the Income Tax Act. As per the Act the term Income
includes:
a. Profits and gains of Business or Profession: This includes income from carrying on a business or income earned by doing any profession.
b. Dividend:
c. Profit in lieu of Salary, perqusite: This includes any amount received by an employee from his employer other then the salary amount.
d. Allowances granted to the assesse to meet his expenses incurred for performance of his duties: This includes allowances such as HRA, Medical allowance, etc given by an employer to his employee.
e. Any capital gains: This means any profit dericed on sale of any capital asset.
f. Winning from lotteries, crossword puzzles, races, card game, T.V. Show , etc
g. Any sum received for fund created for welfare of employees.
One interesting thing in the defination of income is that it can be received in cash or in kind. More over the Income Tax Act does not make distinction between legal source of income or illegal source of income. This means that gambling, smugling income is also chargeable to tax under the Income Tax act. More over gifts of personal nature for eg. birthday/ marriage gifts are not treated as income (but there are some exceptions in this ).
In all tis one more thing is that the term income does not only means profits but there is a concept of negative income also.
a. Profits and gains of Business or Profession: This includes income from carrying on a business or income earned by doing any profession.
b. Dividend:
c. Profit in lieu of Salary, perqusite: This includes any amount received by an employee from his employer other then the salary amount.
d. Allowances granted to the assesse to meet his expenses incurred for performance of his duties: This includes allowances such as HRA, Medical allowance, etc given by an employer to his employee.
e. Any capital gains: This means any profit dericed on sale of any capital asset.
f. Winning from lotteries, crossword puzzles, races, card game, T.V. Show , etc
g. Any sum received for fund created for welfare of employees.
One interesting thing in the defination of income is that it can be received in cash or in kind. More over the Income Tax Act does not make distinction between legal source of income or illegal source of income. This means that gambling, smugling income is also chargeable to tax under the Income Tax act. More over gifts of personal nature for eg. birthday/ marriage gifts are not treated as income (but there are some exceptions in this ).
In all tis one more thing is that the term income does not only means profits but there is a concept of negative income also.
Heads of Income
In the Income Tax any income earned by a person is broadly categorised into five heads of income. Any income earned to be taxed must come under any of the five heads of income. The five heads of income are:1. Income under Head Salaries: This head taxes the income earned by an individual as salary from any firm or organisation.
2. Income from House Property: This head taxes rental income received by any person from way of renting of any immoveable property.
3. Profits and Gains of Business or Profession: This head of income broadly covers income earned by a person as a result of some business or professional set-up by him.
4. Capital Gains: This head of income taxes the income earned on sale of any investment in form of gold, precious ornaments, shares, etc or immoveable property.
5. Income from other Sources: This head of income covers any income which is not chargeable to tax under any of the above heads of income. Any income including gambling or profit/loss on running of race horses, camels, interest income , etc are chargeable to tax under this head of income.
We will take each Head of Income one by one but first in the next post we will understand meaning of the term “Income” itself
