Joint Account and Taxes

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Manish (Querist)
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17 April 2009 Hello,

My wife and I are planning to move back to India in the Jan 2010. In preparation, we transferred money from a joint account in US to an bank account in India, which has my name as first applicant, and my wife's name as second applicant.

We have one joint bank account in US where both of our US salaries gets deposited.

Instead of leaving the the transferred money in the NRE account, I went ahead and requested the bank to open many NRO FD's. Some of the FD's got matured and the bank deducted TDS @30.9%. After my wife and I both submitted our PAN card the bank has notified us that going forward TDS would be @15%.

Now, we are in tax filing season, and I was doing research on filing taxes in India (I came from India to US at time when I need not file taxes). I realized that the bank would issue form 16A only for me and not for my wife. That means only I would be filing taxes for this year. The fact of the matter is that half the interest income we received from NRO account belongs to my wife. What can I do to correct that.

I am not worried too much about the 2008-09 year, what can I do to make sure that going forward half the money in our NRO account belongs to my wife so that she gets her separate income from interest and files taxes individually. (I probably find myself in this situation because I assumed that India would also have something equivalent of "Married Filing Jointly" as in USA).

Any suggestion would be highly appreciated.

Bhaskaran Chackrapani Warrier

Bhaskaran Chackrapani Warrier (Expert)
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17 April 2009 Pl go through clause 2 (d) in http://law.incometaxindia.gov.in/TaxmannDit/DispCitation/ShowCit.aspx?fn=http://law.incometaxindia.gov.in/DitTaxmann/Notifications/IncomeTaxAct/2009/Not28_2009.htm

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CA. Krishna K Neeraj

CA. Krishna K Neeraj (Expert)
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22 April 2009 Proportionate Interest on deposit in joint account is taxable in the hands of you and your wife. Though TDS certificate is in your name, your wife can claim proportionate TDS, on interest offered to be taxed in her hand and then you can claim balance TDS in your ITR.

So far, In India there is nothing equivalent of "Married Filing Jointly" as in USA

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