I have been working in Singapore since April 15, 2017. I am also paying income tax in Singapore on my salary income at the prescribed rate. I am saving approximately ₹2 lakh per month.

I am transferring this amount to the accounts of my wife and father in India for family maintenance. Will it be taxable in India in my name? Or, will it be added to the income of my father/wife?

R D Pandey

In India, the scope of taxation depends on the residential status of a person. This in turn depends on the number of days for which the person is physically present in India during the relevant tax year and previous few tax years.

In case of an individual who is an Indian citizen who leaves India for the purpose of employment abroad, he shall be considered as non-resident if the period of his physical stay in India is less than 182 days during the tax year.

I understand that you went to Singapore in April 2017. In the absence of the complete information, I assume that your physical stay in India during the relevant tax year 2017-18 (that is, April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018) is less than 182 days.

Thus, you shall qualify as non-resident in India and shall be subject to be taxed only in relation to your incomes earned/received in India.

Further, I understand that you have been receiving your salary in Singapore and have been sending your savings in India for family maintenance and investment purposes. Accordingly, as you qualify as non-resident in India and have been receiving salary outside India. Thus, such salary income is not taxable in your hands in India.

Further, the amount remitted by you to your father/wife for family maintenance shall not be taxable in their hands.

However, the income generated out of the funds remitted and invested in India may be taxable.

My mother is 65 and is a retired State government employee. She gets her pension every month but her medical expenditure is much higher.

She is an arthritis patient with over 50 per cent disability. Her expenditure includes medicines, lab tests, doctor appointments, injections, etc. She has been on continuous medication since the last 10-12 years or more. Please suggest if she can claim the above expenses as deduction.

Ekta Sethi

As per the provisions of the Income-Tax Act, 1961 where an individual who is a resident of India incurs any expenditure for the medical treatment of specified diseases or ailment for himself/herself, then the individual shall be allowed a deduction of the actual expenditure incurred up to a maximum of ₹40,000 (₹60,000 in case of senior citizen, that is, 60 years or more up to 80 years). However, as the specified diseases or ailment do not include the treatment for arthritis, your mother would not be able to claim the deduction for her medical expenditure.

The writer is a practising chartered accountant. Send your queries to taxtalk@thehindu.co.in

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