Preventing misuse of deductions of expenses claimed by life insurance business (WIDENING AND DEEPENING OF TAX BASE AND ANTI-AVOIDANCE)

Union Budget 2024-25 (Full) + FINANCE (No.2) Bill, 2024

Section 44 of the Act provides for computing of profits and gains of any business of insurance, including any such business carried on by a mutual insurance company or by a co-operative society, to be in accordance with First Schedule of the Act, notwithstanding other specific provisions of the Act.

2. Rule 2 of the First Schedule, applicable for Life insurance business, states that the profits and gains of life insurance business shall be taken to be the annual average of the surplus arrived at by adjusting the surplus or deficit disclosed by the actuarial valuation made in accordance with the Insurance Act, 1938, in respect of the last inter-valuation period ending before the commencement of the assessment year and excluding from it such surplus or deficit included therein which was made in any earlier inter-valuation period.

3. It has been noticed that there have been instances where non-business expenses have been claimed by life insurance companies and there is no provision to add back these to the income of such companies. In order to ensure that provisions are not misused to claim deduction for expenses which are otherwise not admissible under the provisions of section 37 of the Act, it is proposed to amend Rule 2 of the First Schedule of the Act to provide that any expenditure which is not admissible under the provisions of section 37 in computing the profits and gains of a business shall be included to (i.e. added back to) the profits and gains of the life insurance business.

4. The amendment will take effect from the 1st day of April, 2025 and will accordingly apply from assessment year 2025-2026 onwards.

[Clause 87]

Full Text:

Union Budget 2024-25 (Full) + FINANCE (No.2) Bill, 2024

Dated: 24-7-2024