CBDT issues clarification on eligibility of small Start-ups to avail tax holiday

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has clarified today that small start-ups with turnover upto ₹ 25 crore will continue to get the promised tax holiday as specified in Section 80-IAC of the Income Tax Act, 1961(the ‘Act’), which provides deduction for 100 per cent of income of an eligible start-up for 3 years out of 7 years from the year of its incorporation.

CBDT further clarified that all the start-ups recognised by DPIIT which fulfilled the conditions specified in the DPIIT notification did not automatically become eligible for deduction under Section 80-IAC of the Act. A start-up has to fulfil the conditions specified in Section 80-IAC for claiming this deduction. Therefore, the turnover limit for small start-ups claiming deduction is to be determined by the provisions of Section 80-IAC of the Act and not from the DPIIT notification.

CBDT dispelled the confusion created by some media report claiming discrepancy that the I-T law was yet to reflect DPIIT’s higher turnover threshold of ₹ 100 crore. CBDT said thatthere was no contradiction in DPIIT’s notification dated 19.02.2019 and Section 80-IAC of the I.T. Act, 1961 because in para 3 of the said notification, it has clearly been mentioned that a start-up shall be eligible to apply for the certificate from the Inter-Ministerial Board of Certification for claiming deduction under Section 80-IAC of the Act, only if the start-up fulfils the conditions specified in sub-clause (i) and sub-clause (ii) of the Explanation of Section 80-IAC. Therefore, the turnover limit for eligibility for deduction under section 80-IAC of the Act, as per the DPIIT’s notification is also ₹ 25 crore.

It is further stated that Section 80-IAC contains a detailed definition of the eligible start-up which, interalia, provides that a start-up which is engaged in the eligible business shall be eligible for deduction, if (i) it is incorporated on or after 1st April 2016, (ii) its turnover does not exceed ₹ 25 crore in the year of deduction, and (iii) it holds a certificate from the Inter-Ministerial Board of Certification.

It was explained that this was the major reason as to why there was a wide difference between the number of start-ups recognised by the DPIIT and the start-ups eligible for deduction under section 80-IAC of the Act. It is pertinent to state that Section 80-IAC was inserted vide Finance Act, 2016 as an exception to the Government’s stated policy of phasing out profit-linked deduction for promoting small start-ups during their initial year of operation. Since the intention was to support the small start-ups, the turnover limit of ₹ 25 crore was considered reasonable for granting profit linking deduction.