Special Story – The Maharashtra Co-op. Housing Society
CA Tushar Doctor
Taxation of Housing Society (Including TDS)
1.
Meaning
2.
Under section 2(19) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (“the Act�), a co-operative society is defined as a co-operative society registered under the Co-operative Societies Act, 1912 or under any other law for the time being in force in any State for the registration of co-operative societies. ! ! $ society is available only after registration under the applicable co-operative law for registration. So Income-tax recognizes a co-operative society when it is 1. 2.
Registered under Co-operative Society Act, 1912, or Any other law in any state for registration of co-operative society.
So, the co-operative society registration is necessary for claiming deduction u/s 80P of the I. T. Act. In this regard, it should also be noted that Regional Rural Bank, although registered under Regional Rural Bank Act, 1976 are also regarded as co-operative society as per CBDT Circular 319 dt. 11-1-1982. However, this has been withdrawn by CBDT vide Circular No. 6/2010, dated 20-9-2010.
SS-VI-73
Status
In view of the separate rates of taxes specified in the Finance Acts and returns of income giving a separate code for status for co-operative societies the status is that of a co-operative society. The residential status is generally Resident & Ordinarily Resident (R&OR) unless the control and management are situated wholly outside India. 2.1 With respect to status, observations reproduced below from following judgments are worth noting – 2.1.1 Nasik District Labour Societies, Co-operative Federation Ltd. vs. ITO (1986) 18 ITD 354 (PuneTrib.) The ITO held that since clause D1.1 says that only primary labour society can become member ! ~! person cannot contribute labour, the members of the primary societies cannot be treated as members of the assessee-society. The conditions of section 80P(2)(a)(vi) are thus not fulfilled. Further, what is required in section 80P is that the assessee is engaged in the collective disposal of the labour of its members. The assesseesociety which supervises or co-ordinates affairs of members labour co-operative societies cannot be said to be engaged in collective disposal of labour of its members. Reliance was placed on Assam Co-operative Apex Marketing Society Ltd. vs.
The Chamber's Journal April 2013
89