Among a slew of tax concessions announced in the Interim Budget 2019 that will help home owners is the one where income tax that is levied on notional rent accruing from a second self-occupied house will be done away with.

“Considering the difficulty of the middle-class having to maintain families at two locations on account of their job, children’s education, care of parents, etc., I am proposing to exempt levy of income tax on notional rent on a second self-occupied house,” finance minister Piyush Goyal said.

Further, the capital gains accruing from selling a house will now be exempted from tax if the proceeds are used to buy two houses subject to a maximum gain of Rs2 crore. However, the benefit can be availed only once in a lifetime.“This change is meant to address the concerns of the parents who want to sell the existing house and buy two smaller homes for their children. Earlier, there was a limitation on claim of long term capital gains (LTCG) tax exemption up to one new residential house property,” said Rakesh Nangia, managing partner at Nangia Advisors LLP.

Kuldip Kumar, partner and leader, Personal Tax at PWC, said this may not apply to existing unutilised capital gain, lying in capital gain account, which is to be utilised for buying or constructing house property in two or three years, respectively.”

Additionally, in what is expected to provide impetus to a sluggish real estate sector, the government has extended, by one year, the benefit under Section 80-IBA of the I-T Act for housing projects approved till March 31, 2020.

Separately, the minister also proposed to extend the period of exemption from levy of tax on notional rent for unsold inventories to two years from one year earlier. Further, TDS threshold for deduction of tax on rent is proposed to be increased from Rs1.8 lakh to Rs2.4 lakh for providing relief to small taxpayers,” Goyal said.

Interest earnings of up to Rs40,000 from bank deposits and post office savings are now exempt from TDS, up from Rs10,000 earlier. The move will benefit small savers and non-working spouses.