Tax deduction at source from non-exempt payments made under life insurance policy

     Under the existing provisions of section 10(10D) of the Act, any sum received under a life insurance policy, including the sum allocated by way of bonus on such policy is exempt subject to fulfillment of conditions specified under the said section. Therefore, the sum received under a life insurance policy which does not fulfill the conditions specified under section 10(10D) are taxable under the provisions of the Act.

     In order to have a mechanism for reporting of transactions and collection of tax in respect of sum paid under life insurance policies which are not exempted under section 10(10D) of the Act, it is proposed to insert a new section in the Act to provide for deduction of tax at the rate of 2 per cent. on sum paid under a life insurance policy, including the sum allocated by way of bonus, which are not exempt under section 10(10D) of the Act. In order to reduce the compliance burden on the small tax payers, it has also been proposed that no deduction under this provision shall be made if the aggregate sum paid in a financial year to an assessee is less than ₹ 1,00,000/-.

     This amendment will take effect from 1st October, 2014.

[Clause 55 ]

Tax deduction at source on non-exempt life insurance payouts, with an exemption threshold to ease compliance for small payees. A proposed amendment would require tax deduction at source on sums paid under life insurance policies, including bonuses, that are not exempt under the life-insurance exemption. The proposal includes an exemption from deduction for aggregate annual payments below a prescribed threshold to reduce compliance for smaller recipients and identifies an effective commencement date in the legislative proposal.