FAQ's

Property Tax payment is made out to the local government or the municipal corporation of his area. It includes the owner’s tangible assets which include his house, his properties that rents out, other residential commercial or residential properties that he possesses. For property tax online payment, one can go to their municipal corporation website and access the property tax portal to pay their taxes.

Depending on the use of property, the property tax rate in Mumbai ranges from 0.316%-2.296%. If it’s a disputed property, then the property tax will be paid by the person selected by the assessing officer till a decision has been reached in court. Property tax calculator depends from state to state but to calculate property tax in Mumbai the following formula is used-It is a percentage of the *capital value of the property.

*Capital value = Rate of base value^* Total carpet area/area of land in case of vacant land * building type * age factor * usage factor * floor factor.
(just check the numbers & calculations)

A person who is in legal possession of a property pays the house or property tax. The word Owner here refers to the legal or the deemed owner of the property. The property must be registered in the name of the person paying the property tax. In general, the rate of property tax ranges from 5-20% depending upon different regions in India. The property tax rate in Mumbai is up to 14%.

The definition of a deemed owner is- that they are an owner by implication. It means that they need not be the person under whom the property is registered, but they are liable to pay the house property tax. Some instances where this may occur-

1. When an individual transfers the property to their spouse or minor child.
2. In a Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) - a case where two or more people hold a legal property, like in the case of home owned by a joint family where the property cannot be legally divided among the members.., it holds the property on behalf of all members, it will be treated as the owner, while in reality, the property is in the name of the individual members of the family.
3. The person who has been allotted a building under a house building scheme in a cooperative society or company will be the deemed owner of the property.
4. A buyer of the property who is willing to perform their part of the contract according to the provisions of section 53A of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 is deemed as the owner of the property. That person only has possession but no title in the property.
5. A person who has had a lease on the property for not less than 12 years and has acquired rights, they are the deemed owner of the property.

The provisions of the I-T Act for FY 2018-19 state that if a person owns more than one house, and none of them have been put out for rent or let out during the year, then they can treat both properties as self-occupied and all other properties, if any, as deemed to let out. The market rent that a similar property would fetch is deemed as the annual value of the property and is taxable even if they don’t earn an income on this. Thus, a person can have only one self-occupied house property as per the provisions of the I-T Act for the current FY, and he has to pay tax on all other house properties even if they have been lying vacant or occupied by any family member. The new provision states that considering the financial burden of paying taxes and maintaining families on multiple properties, there have been some changes.

If the person owns more than two houses, then they can claim the annual value of any two properties as nil, therefore they won’t be required to pay tax on the market rent on the second property. It can be treated as self-occupied only if it meets the following conditions.

1. If it is occupied for the owner’s own residence.
2. If it cannot be occupied owing to the owner’s employment, children’s education, or business at some other place.

Taxable Property can be your home, office, shop, or building as the Income Tax Act does not differentiate between a commercial or residential property. The property is taxed under the income from house property, and the owner for the purpose of the income tax is the legal owner of the property.

If it is used for business it can be taxed, then the maintenance and repair can be claimed as an item of business expenditure.

New tax reforms have made it easier to extend the notion of self-occupied to two or more properties and the remaining are taken as deemed to be let out. A house property that is rented for the whole part or a part of the year is considered a let-out property for income tax purposes.

Using an online property tax calculator, you can estimate property taxes on the multiple properties you own. The taxes on the houses you let out are taxed on the market rent of the property for the entire year.

In matters of dispute, the opinions of the court are final. Disputed properties often go through a long and complicated battle in courts where lengthy documents are reviewed to assess the real owner of the property. However till the final judgment arrives, an assessing officer has the power to decide the owner who will be liable to pay the property taxes till a final judgment has been made with regards to the real owner of the property. If the judge decides against the assessing officer’s judgment, then the person who has been paying the taxes all this while can ask for a refund from the owner deemed by the court.

Most municipal bodies have a portal on which paying property tax online is smooth and easy. Below are the steps for you to pay it online:

• Visit the official website of your local municipality. (Mumbai: https://portal.mcgm.gov.in/irj/portal/anonymous , Vasai: https://vvcmc.in/en/ , Thane: https://thanecity.gov.in/tmc/CitizenHome.html )


• Log in with your credentials. If you have not registered on the portal, then register and login to your account.


• Click on the ‘Property Tax’ tab.


• Choose your property type and assessment year.


• You can calculate the property tax payable by using the house tax calculator.


• Fill in other details like the owner’s name, property identification number and other relevant information.