Now Reading: NRIs can claim Section 54F relief on mutual fund sale to buy house
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NRIs can claim Section 54F relief on mutual fund sale to buy house
The Story in Brief
A non-resident Indian can claim Section 86 (erstwhile Section 54F) exemption on long-term capital gains from selling mutual fund units by investing the net proceeds in a residential house in India, subject to conditions including a Rs 10 crore cost cap. The benefit is available to both residents and non-residents, provided the taxpayer does not own more than one other residential house on the date of transfer and the new property is not sold within three years. Any uninvested proceeds must be deposited in the Capital Gains Account Scheme before the income-tax return filing deadline.
Separately, under Section 82 of the new Income Tax Act, 2025, long-term gains from selling a residential property are exempt if reinvested in another Indian house property within specified timelines: purchase within one year before or two years after the sale, or construction within three years. The exemption is capped at Rs 10 crore, and if gains do not exceed Rs 2 crore, the taxpayer has a one-time option to invest in two houses instead of one.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The two stories cover different sections of the new Income Tax Act, 2025, and neither frames the government favourably or critically. Livemint's reader query answers Section 86 (erstwhile 54F) for mutual fund proceeds used to buy a house, while Economic Times explains Section 82 (erstwhile 54) for property sale reinvestment. Both present rules neutrally with tax practitioner commentary, avoiding any political or ideological slant. A reader combining the pieces gets a clear overview: Livemint names the cap at Rs 10 crore and the one-year-before/two-years-after window, Economic Times adds the lock-in period and the one-time option to buy two houses if gains are Rs 2 crore or less. Uniform straight reporting across both sources leaves the key takeaway as the applicable timeline and monetary caps a taxpayer must satisfy.
Coverage: 2 sources, 2 neutral
Sources (2): livemint.com (neutral report), economictimes.indiatimes.com (neutral report)
This brief was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry. Methodology and corrections.
