# NRIs can claim tax exemption on mutual fund sale for house 2026-11-02T02:47:08+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 2 independent outlets Non-resident Indians who sell mutual fund units can claim exemption under Section 86 of the Income Tax Act, 2025 (erstwhile Section 54F of the 1961 Act) by investing the net sale proceeds in a residential house in India, subject to conditions, Livemint reports. The benefit is available to both residents and non-residents. The new house must be purchased within one year before or two years after the transfer, or constructed within three years. The exemption is capped at Rs 10 crore, and any uninvested amount must be deposited in the Capital Gains Account Scheme before the income-tax return filing deadline. Separately, ET explains that Section 54 is now renumbered as Section 82 for property sales. Under Section 82, long-term capital gains from selling a residential house are exempt if reinvested in another house in India, also subject to a Rs 10 crore cap and similar timelines. ## Indian Opinion Analysis Both Livemint and ET cover the same tax rules under the new Income Tax Act, 2025, each giving a reader query and a practitioner table. Livemint frames the answer around Section 86 (Section 54F of the 1961 Act) for non-residents selling mutual funds, leading with a reader's personal situation. ET frames the same exemption as Section 82 (the renumbered Section 54) for property sellers, leading with the new section number and a table of tax rates. The only material difference is the asset type each outlet foregrounds: mutual funds in Livemint, a residential house in ET. Both are straight advisory copy with no government stance, the coverage is uniform on the 10-crore cap and the one-year/two-year/three-year timelines. A reader should check which section applies to their specific asset. ## Coverage Coverage: 2 sources, 2 neutral - livemint.com (neutral report) neutral-report personal-finance advice with a reader query - economictimes.indiatimes.com (neutral report) neutral-report advisory with practitioner table This brief was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry. Update, 2 November 2026: this story now draws on 2 sources. Last updated 2026-11-02T04:26:57+00:00. Tags: Capital Gains Account Scheme, Income-tax Act, 2025, NRI, Section 54F, Section 82, Section 86 Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/nris-can-claim-section-54f-relief-on-mutual-fund-sale-to-buy-house/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/nris-can-claim-section-54f-relief-on-mutual-fund-sale-to-buy-house/#story-in-brief How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/