15 November 2013
‘slump sale’ is one of the methods available to give effect to a transfer of a division or undertaking of a company to another company. Under this method, all the assets and liabilities of (or relatable to) the undertaking are transferred for a ‘lump sum’ consideration without assigning values to the individual assets and liabilities of that undertaking. Unlike certain other types of merger and acquisition transactions, such as qualifying amalgamations or demergers, that are exempt from capital gains taxation on account of transfer of the undertaking, slump sales give rise to liability for capital gains taxation in the hands of the transferor company. However, the manner of computation of capital gains tax for a slump sale has been specifically laid down in the Income Tax Act, 1961 and is different from the treatment that applies to transfers of other forms of capital assets.