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QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Belated claim of deduction u/s 80DD
This is with reference to the benefit of Sec. 80DD for the maintenance, including medical treatment, of disabled dependent to the tune of Rs. 75,000 as deduction. I am regularly filing my IT return every year but so far I have not claimed any deduction under the Sec. 80DD. Now I came to know about it. I would like to know whether I can claim the deduction in respect of my father aged 67 years, who is a handicapped person suffering from poliomyelities to the extent of more than 60 per cent handicap.
Sec. 80DD allows a deduction of Rs. 50,000, which is for maintenance, including medical treatment of a dependent person with permanent disability.
If the disability is a severe one, deduction is at Rs. 75,000. In the reader’s case, the parent should be dependent on the reader “wholly and mainly for his support and maintenance” with the parent not having claimed any deduction in his own assessment under Sec. 80U as a handicapped person.
Disability should be one which falls under Disability (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995. For other disabilities like “autism, cerebral palsy and multiple disability, it should fall under National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism. Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disability Act, 1999.
In either case, the claim should be supported by a certificate from a medical authority authorised on this behalf to issue certificate for disability/ illness under Sec. 2 of the respective Acts. To merit deduction of higher deduction of Rs. 75,000, severe disability has to be certified by the medical authority, satisfying the prescribed norms.
Supported by such a certificate, the reader may file and claim the deduction in the return to be filed in future starting from the present assessment year 2008-09 covering financial year 2007-08. He can file revised return for assessment year 2007-08 covering financial year 2006-07 before March 31, 2009. The law vests the Commissioner with the right to entertain revision petition with power to condone the delay for sufficient reasons, if any assessment had been made on the assessee for earlier years.
But then, the fact that no claim was made in the return filed earlier is likely to result in the Commissioner turning down the request for condonation, as the remedy in such cases is discretionary. There is no right of appeal against an order passed on such revision petition, so that it is understood as a “mercy petition”.
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