Budget 2023: Will long-term capital gains exemption limit go up?

Balwant Jain, a Mumbai-based chartered accountant, said, “Bonds are a short-term asset class and equity is a long term asset class. The holding period requirement to term an investment as a long-term capital asset for the purpose of taxation should be such that the long-term investments in equities is encouraged.” He proposed that units of debt funds, if held for one year before sale, should be considered long-term capital asset. For units of equity mutual funds, it should be three years and for real estate it should be five years, he suggested.

Exemptions to long-term capital gains

Under current rules, individual investors need not pay tax if the long-term capital gains on stocks and equity mutual funds do not exceed Rs 1 lakh in a financial year. Beyond this threshold, they are taxed at 10 percent. Mihir Tanna, associate director (direct tax), S K Patodia & Associates, a Mumbai-based firm of chartered accountants, argued that the exemption limit is inadequate. “The limit should go up to Rs 2.5 lakh or higher. Income of individuals is not subject to income tax as long as it is below Rs 2.5 lakh in a financial year,” he pointed out.

The exemption allowed for long-term capital gains on equity investments need to be further enhanced to account for inflation, rising income levels and to encourage more investors into equity markets, say analysts.

“Many times, investors are seen dabbling in stocks and units of equity mutual funds under the pretext of booking profit just because they are held for one year and 10 percent rate is applicable on long-term capital gains beyond the exemption limit of Rs 1 lakh. However, there is a need to encourage real long-term investing with suitable tax soaps,” said Nitesh Buddhadev, a chartered accountant and founder of Nimit Consultancy. There should be no tax on capital gains if the investments in listed stocks, unlisted stocks or equity mutual funds are held for minimum ten years, he added.

Jain, however, has a different suggestion for incentivising long-term investments in equities. “Currently. Long-term capital gains on equities beyond Rs 1 lakh in a financial year are taxed at a flat rate of 10 percent, irrespective of how long you held it. There is a need to allow indexation benefit while computing long-term capital gains on investments in equities and units of equity mutual funds,” he said.

Indexation benefit to equity investments also needs to be seen in the context of the higher level of risk an equity investor takes compared to those taken by fixed income investor.

Soni said, “The capital gains exemption of Rs. 1 lakh is only available in the case of long-term gains from equity shares and equity-oriented mutual funds, which is expected to be given for long-term gain from debt-oriented mutual funds also.”

There may be some investors who are not investing in equities at all. Such investors end up paying taxes on profits booked on their long-term investments in debt funds and cannot avail any exemption.

Rate revisions are due

Short-term capital gains on equities are taxed at 15 percent. This was well accepted when the minimum rate of income tax was 10 percent. “Now that the minimum rate of tax is cut to 5 percent, investors in that income tax slab find this 15 percent rate punitive. There should be some respite offered to small investors,” said Jain.

Investors expect the finance minister to offer some relief on the tax rates payable on capital gains booked on debt investments. Long-term capital gains on debt funds are currently taxed at 20 percent and short-term capital gains as per the slab rate of the investor. However, interest rates have come down in the pandemic period and inflation has surged. Even if interest rates have inched up in the last one year, there is talk that rates will trend down in the medium to long term. Expectations of low interest rates and current high rate of taxes leave very little in the hands of the investors, on a post-tax basis.

Clearly, there is a long list of prayers from various sections of the economy ahead of the budget. It will be interesting to see how many are answered.