I am a professional (a cardiologist) who has got job offer from a private hospital( a cardiac centre). Their job offer is say 4.5 lakhs per month approximately given as professional fees. Their centre being a cardiac centre employs only cardiologists....If a need for other specialist doctors are required (for inpatient consultations in case of non-cardiac issues), these other specialist doctors are called in to have a look from nearby centres. These "outside" consultants are not full time employees. They are full time employees elsewhere. For the work they do at our centre, my centre gives them a remuneration . For most of these doctors, the money is given on a per-case basis. For a few though a fixed amount is given monthly (not a very high amount...say in the range of rs 5000 per month fixed irrespective of the number of consultations. The number of consultations would not be a very high number anyway!). Now my wife is a dentist. I told them that i am willing to work, if they pay me 4 lakhs per month and they keep my wife as an "outside" consultant in the field of dentistry with a fixed pay of rs 50000 per month.
Now the owners are OK with the pay structure....(why wouldn't they?- its still 4.5 Lakhs either way)...they are OK with keeping my wife as an outside consultant in the field of dentistry as well....The only thing that they are worried about is whether this would be a legal or illegal arrnagment......The doubt arises because , eventhough they need an outiside consultant in the field of dentistry, the denstists so kept need not be paid this much.... As I said earlier in other specialities , outside consultants are ppaid a maximum of rs 5000/month. So their point is that rs 50000/month is way too high for a dentist....and eventhough they are ready to pay this , will some govt authority pull them or me for it? Is such an arrangement illegal? Let it be noted that if at all such an arrangement is put in place, all payments would be in white....TDS and PAN and all that of both of us will come in pay....nothing will be in black
Does the amount paid to my wife be cosidered as my own income as per "income clubbing" clauses? I am just an employee there and I have no investment in the hospital
She is technically qualified(to be a dentist and has experience as well) and all that....its just that the work she does there may not warrant the high salary....
"We pay a very high remuneration to this dentist because we wanted to employ her husband....and her husband was ready to work for us only if we agreed to this combined deal"--IS such an explanation legally tenable?
I understand that with this arrangement I will pay much less tax (under section 44 ADA).....Is it a perfectly legal tax planning arrangement? If not what Income tax clause or what law would I be violating?
CAclubindia
