Decoding capital gains taxes: What FM Nirmala took from your pocket, what she gave you in Budget 2024

The union budget for 2024 introduced a slew of changes that will directly impact your pocket in the days to come. FM Sitharaman brought about significant changes in how your capital gains were taxed. Take a look at how this will impact your pocket.

First off, what are capital gains?
Simply put, any gains or profits you make when you sell a capital asset like your properties, investments in stock or mutual funds and more is counted as capital gains. What sets capital assets aside is their ability to generate monetary value over a long period. Depending on the time period they are held for before they are sold, long-term capital gains (LTCG) or short-term capital gains (STCG) is applicable.

So, what has changed?
In one sharp move, Nirmala Sitharaman pushed up the long-term capital gains tax from 10% previously to 12.5% now. Moreover, indexation benefit, which reduced the total tax outgo from the investor's hands, also went away with these proposed changes. As for short-term capital gains tax, it was decreased to 15% from its previous rate of 20%.

However, to ease the pain, the maximum exemption amount for long-term capital gains in a single year was increased from Rs 1,00,000 previously, to Rs 1,25,000 now.

All listed securities will be considered long-term capital assets (and hence, LTCG will be levied) if they are held for a period of 12 months. For unlisted securities and other immovable properties, LTCG will be applicable post 24 months of holding them. Bonds, debentures and gold will have also have a holding period of 24 months, from the earlier duration of 36 months, in order to be eligible for long-term capital gains tax.

What does indexation mean?
Indexation allowed investors to account for inflation, by adding the same to their initial purchase price. This would result in a higher purchase price, significantly lowering the overall gains. But now, capital gains tax will be calculated at the actual purchase price (ouch!) with no scope to factor for inflation, which would mean a higher tax outflow from the investor's pockets. This benefit has been done away with for real estate and gold.

Under indexation benefit, it is not your initial purchase, or acquisition price that is taken into consideration, but rather your indexed cost of acquisition that comes to play. This is calculated using the CII of the sale year and the purchase year. This helps in adjusting the purchase cost of your property for inflation when you are selling it.

The government calculates and notifies the public of the CII (cost inflation index) every year.

For instance, Aditya's father purchased a property worth Rs 40,00,000 in 2009 (FY2009-10). In 2004 (FY2024-25), he decides to sell this for around a crore. How will his tax liability be calculated?

First, lets consider that he had indexation benefit. By that, his indexed cost of acquisition (there's a long formula to this) would be Rs 98,10,810, making his long-term gains at Rs 1,89,189. So, 20% of this would come down to Rs 37,837.

But lets also consider if he did not have this indexation benefit. While indexation benefits have been done away with starting July 23rd, 2024, lets assume this rule came into effect at the very start of FY25, or 1st April, 2024. This would mean your total capital gain would be 12.5% of Rs 60,00,000, or a staggering Rs 7,50,000.

What are the experts saying?
Nilesh Sharma - President & Executive Director, SAMCO Securities sees this as a double whammy which leaves much to be desired on the investors front. "It seems govt wants share in investors’ profit. At a time when the equity indices are at an all-time high, the government has tried to take a share out of the growth and the profits earned by the investors by increasing both the STT rates on derivatives and an increase in STCG and LTCG", he notes

"The removal of indexation benefit for LTCG will also impact the real estate industry and will slow down the resale of residential flats /lands. There is a fear that it may also increase the proportion of cash transaction in real estate deals, which will be again be counterproductive. The government has not announced any major changes for the individual tax payers except a slight change in the tax slabs and a minor increase in the standard deduction. This too, is however applicable only in the new tax regime, leaving nothing for the tax payers who have opted for the old tax regime", continued Sharma.

Palka Arora Chopra, Director, Master Capital Services Ltd notes that the removal of indexation benefits might negatively impact investor returns, leading to a short-term bearish outlook for the sector. "While the 25% increase in the Long-Term Capital Gains (LTCG) tax is manageable and not likely to deter investors significantly, the increase in short-term capital gains (STCG) tax from 15% to 20% could have a more pronounced negative impact in the medium term", she continued.