Definitions of certain terms relevant to income from profits and gains of business or profession

Definitions of certain terms relevant to income from profits and gains of business or profession.

43. In sections 28 to 41 and in this section, unless the context otherwise requires—

(1) "actual cost" means the actual cost of the assets to the assessee, reduced by that portion of the cost thereof, if any, as has been met directly or indirectly by any other person or authority :

¹[Provided that where the actual cost of an asset, being a motor-car which is acquired by the assessee after the 31st day of March, 1967, ²[but before the 1st day of March, 1975,] and is used otherwise than in a business of running it on hire for tourists, exceeds twenty-five thousand rupees, the excess of the actual cost over such amount shall be ignored, and the actual cost thereof shall be taken to be twenty-five thousand rupees.]

Explanation 1 : Where an asset is used in the business after it ceases to be used for scientific research related to that business, and a deduction has to be made under clause (i), clause (ii) or clause (iii) of sub-section (1) ³[or sub-section (1A)] of section-32 in respect of that asset, the actual cost of the asset to the assessee shall be the actual cost to the assessee as reduced by the amount of any deduction allowed under clause (iv) of sub-section (1) of section-35 or under any corresponding provision of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 (11 of 1922).

Explanation 2 : Where an asset is acquired by the assessee by way of gift or inheritance, the actual cost of the asset to the assessee shall be the written down value thereof as in the case of the previous owner for the previous year in which the asset is so acquired or the market value thereof on the date of such acquisition, whichever is the less.

Explanation 3 : Where, before the date of acquisition by the assessee, the assets were at any time used by any other person for the purposes of his business or profession and the Income-tax Officer is satisfied that the main purpose of the transfer of such assets, directly or indirectly to the assessee, was the reduction of a liability to income-tax (by claiming depreciation with reference to an enhanced cost), the actual cost to the assessee shall be such an amount as the Income-tax Officer may, with the previous approval of the Inspecting Assistant Commissioner, determine having regard to all the circumstances of the case.

Explanation 4 : Where assets which had once belonged to the assessee and had been used by him for the purposes of his business or profession and thereafter ceased to be his property by reason of transfer or otherwise, are re-acquired by him, the actual cost to the assessee shall be the actual cost to him when he first acquired the assets less the depreciation actually allowed to him under this Act or under the corresponding provisions of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 (11 of 1922), diminished by any loss deducted, or as the case may be, increased by any profit assessed, under the provisions of clause (iii) of sub-section (1) ³[ or clause (ii) of sub-section (1A)] of section-32 or sub-section (2) ³[or sub-section (2A)] of section-41 of this Act or under the corresponding provisions of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 (11 of 1922), or the actual price for which the asset is re-acquired by him, whichever is the less.

Explanation 5 : Where a building previously the property of the assessee is brought into use for the purpose of the business or profession after the 28th day of February, 1946, the actual cost to the assessee shall be the actual cost of the building to the assessee, as reduced by an amount equal to the depreciation calculated at the rate in force on that date that would have been allowable had the building been used for the aforesaid purposes since the date of its acquisition by the assessee.

⁴[Explanation 6 : When any capital asset is transferred by a holding company to its subsidiary company, or by a subsidiary company to its holding company, then, if the conditions of clause (iv) or, as the case may be, of clause (v) of section-47 are satisfied, the actual cost of the transferred capital asset to the transferee-company shall be taken to be the same as it would have been if the transferor-company had continued to hold the capital asset for the purposes of its business.]

⁵[Explanation 7 : Where, in a scheme of amalgamation, any capital asset is transferred by the amalgamating company to the amalgamated company and the amalgamated company is an Indian company, the actual cost of the transferred capital asset to the amalgamated company shall be taken to be the same as it would have been if the amalgamating company had continued to hold the capital asset for the purposes of its own business ;]

(2) "paid" means actually paid or incurred according to the method of accounting upon the basis of which the profits or gains are computed under the head "Profits and gains of business or profession" ;

(3) "plant" includes ships, vehicles, books, scientific apparatus and surgical equipment used for the purposes of the business or profession ;

(4) ⁶[(i) "scientific research" means any activities for the extension of knowledge in the fields of natural or applied science including agriculture, animal husbandry or fisheries ;]

(ii) references to expenditure incurred on scientific research include all expenditure incurred for the prosecution, or the provision of facilities for the prosecution, of scientific research but do not include any expenditure incurred in the acquisition of rights in, or arising out of, scientific research ;

(iii) references to scientific research related to a business or class of business including—

(a) any scientific research which may lead to or facilitate an extension of that business or, as the case may be, all businesses of that class ;

(b) any scientific research of a medical nature which has a special relation to the welfare of workers employed in that business or, as the case may be, all businesses of that class ;

(5) "speculative transaction" means a transaction in which a contract for the purchase or sale of any commodity including stocks and shares, is periodically or ultimately settled otherwise than by the actual delivery or transfer of the commodity or scrips :

Provided that for the purposes of this clause—

(a) a contract in respect of raw materials or merchandise entered into by a person in the course of his manufacturing or merchanting business to guard against loss through future price fluctuations in respect of his contracts for actual delivery of goods manufactured by him or merchandise sold by him, or

(b) a contract in respect of stocks and shares entered into by a dealer or investor therein to guard against loss in his holdings of stocks and shares through price fluctuations, or

(c) a contract entered into by a member of a forward market or a stock exchange in the course of any transaction in the nature of jobbing or arbitrage to guard against loss which may arise in the ordinary course of his business as such member ;

shall not be deemed to be a speculative transaction ;

(6) "written down value" means—

(a) in the case of assets acquired in the previous year, the actual cost to the assessee ;

(b) in the case of assets acquired before the previous year, the actual cost to the assessee less all depreciation actually allowed to him under this Act, or under the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 (11 of 1922), or any Act repealed by that Act, or under any executive orders issued when the Indian Income-tax Act, 1886 (2 of 1886), was in force

⁷[Provided that in determining the written down value in respect of buildings, machinery or plant for the purposes of clause (ii) of sub-section (1) of section-32, "depreciation actually allowed" shall not include depreciation allowed under sub-clauses (a), (b) and (c) of clause (vi) of sub-section (2) of section-10 of the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 (11 of 1922), where such depreciation was not deductible in determining the written down value for the purposes of the said clause (vi).]

Explanation 1 : When in a case of succession in business or profession an assessment is made on the successor under sub-section (2) of section-170 the written down value of any asset shall be the amount which would have been taken as its written down value if the assessment had been made directly on the person succeeded to.

⁴[Explanation 2 : When any capital asset is transferred by a holding company to its subsidiary company or by a subsidiary company to its holding company, then, if the conditions of clause (iv), or, as. the case may be, of clause (v) of section-47, are satisfied, the written down value of the transferred capital asset to the transferee-company shall be taken to be the same as it would have been if the transferor-company had continued to hold the capital asset for the purposes of its business.]

⁵[Explanation 2A : Where, in a scheme of amalgamation, any capital asset is transferred by the amalgamating company to the amalgamated company, and the amalgamated company is an Indian company, the written down value of the transferred capital asset to the amalgamated company shall be taken to be the same as it would have been if the amalgamating company had continued to hold the capital asset for the purposes of its business.]

Explanation 3 : Any allowance in respect of any depreciation carried forward under sub-section (2) of section-32 shall be deemed to be depreciation "actually allowed".

[As amended by the Finance Act, 1981]