Income tax returns (ITR) filing: This segment does not have to pay tax; are you in it?

Income tax returns (ITR) filing: Taxpayers have got a blessing in the form of having the last date to file their ITR shifted away for a month from July 31 to August 31. While this is definitely a big relief, the point is, considering that so many people are unsure about their liabilities and even taxpaying status, this shifting of last date will not help them much, unless they take some action themselves and actively look to find out whether they have to pay any tax. 

Notably, this group that does not have to pay tax, does not really have to look at income at all. What its members need to do is find out if they really need to file or pay taxes. This group is made up of agriculturists. So, is the income of an agriculturist taxable? Some agriculturists have, by dint of their hard labour, innovation, imagination managed to really do well in India over the recent decades. 

However, do know that agricultural income is not taxable! Yes, you read that right. But hold on, that is not where it ends. The situation changes depending on where the income is coming from.

So, if agriculturists have a non-agricultural income, then while calculating tax on this income, their agricultural income will be taken into account for rate purpose. 

To find out further about the meaning of Agricultural Income, section 2(IA) of the Income-tax Act can be referred to.

In brief, however, agricultural income" means —

(a) any rent or revenue derived from land which is situated in India and is used for agricultural purposes;

(b) any income derived from such land by—

(i) agriculture; or

(ii) the performance by a cultivator or receiver of rent-in-kind of any process ordinarily employed by a cultivator or receiver of rent-in-kind to render the produce raised or received by him fit to be taken to market; or

(iii) the sale by a cultivator or receiver of rent-in-kind of the produce raised or received by him, in respect of which no process has been performed other than a process of the nature described in paragraph (ii) of this sub-clause;

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(c) any income derived from any building owned and occupied by the receiver of the rent or revenue of any such land, or occupied by the cultivator or the receiver of rent-in-kind, of any land with respect to which, or the produce of which, any process mentioned in paragraphs (ii) and (iii) of sub-clause (b) is carried on.