ITAT relief for Saif for 6,000 sq ft Bandra flat

Actor Saif Ali Khan Pataudi has obtained a favourable order from the Income-Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) on notional rent for a vacant apartment he owns. It dismissed a significantly higher sum the I-T authorities had sought to tax. The ITAT accepted the actor's plea that he could not rent out the 6,000 sq feet apartment in Hicon Residency, a luxurious building in Bandra, because of certain defects in the flat's construction that were not as per the approved plan. Against a taxable rent of Rs 50 lakh determined by the Commissioner (Appeals), the ITAT accepted Rs 11.8 lakh the actor had offered to tax based on a valuation report. The bench, in its order dated August 21, stressed that Pataudi's plea before the tax tribunal "cannot be said to be spurious, vexatious, mere bluster or frivolous". Under the I-T Act, where an individual owns more than one house, he/she can treat any one of the residential properties as "self-occupied" and exempt from tax. The other houses, even if not given out on rent, are assumed to have been let out and notional rent (after allowing for deductions) has to be offered to tax.