Provide for pass through of losses in cases of Category I and Category II Alternative Investment Fund (AIF)

Section 115UB of the Act, inter alia, provides for pass through of income earned by the Category I and II AIF, except for business income which is taxed at AIF level. Pass through of profits (other than profit & gains from business) has been allowed to individual investors so as to give them benefit of lower rate of tax, if applicable. Pass through of losses are not provided under the existing regime and are retained at AIF level to be carried forward and set off in accordance with Chapter VI.

In order to remove the genuine difficulty faced by Category I and II AIFs , it is proposed to amend section 115UB to provide that

(i) the business loss of the investment fund, if any, shall be allowed to be carried forward and it shall be set-off by it in accordance with the provisions of Chapter VI and it shall not be passed onto the unit holder;

(ii) the loss other than business loss, if any, shall also be ignored for the purposes of pass through to its unit holders, if such loss has arisen in respect of a unit which has not been held by the unit holder for a period of atleast twelve months;

(iii) the loss other than business loss, if any, accumulated at the level of investment fund as on 31st March, 2019, shall be deemed to be the loss of a unit holder who held the unit on 31st March, 2019 in respect of the investments made by him

in the investment fund and allowed to be carried forward by him for the remaining period calculated from the year in which the loss had occurred for the first time taking that year as the first year and it shall be set-off by him in accordance with the provisions of Chapter VI;

(iv) the loss so deemed in the hands of unit holders shall not be available to the investment fund for the purposes of chapter VI.

These amendments will take effect from the 1st April, 2020 and will, accordingly, apply in relation to the assessment year 2020-21 and subsequent assessment years.

[Clause 38]