Sub-section (1) applies to property co-owned with a definite and ascertainable share. The co-owners are not to be assessed as an association of persons; instead the income is computed separately under this Part and each co-owner's respective share of it is included in that co-owner's total income. Sub-section (2) deals with the relief in section 21(6) — the nil annual value for a house the owner occupies for his own residence or cannot actually occupy for any reason — and directs that it be provided as if each co-owner were individually entitled to it.
Why it is there
Joint ownership of house property would otherwise expose the owners to assessment as a single association of persons, at that entity's rates and with the shares merged. The section keeps each co-owner separate, and sub-section (2) makes sure the self-occupation relief is not diluted by being shared between them.
Who it applies to
Each co-owner of house property whose share is definite and ascertainable
A co-owner who occupies a co-owned house for his own residence, or cannot occupy it
The Assessing Officer deciding whether to assess joint owners as an association of persons
What this means in practice
The condition that unlocks the section is a definite and ascertainable share — where shares are not definite, sub-section (1) does not operate and the association of persons route is not displaced. The order of computation matters: the income is computed under this Part for the property, and it is the respective share of that computed income which goes into each co-owner's total income, not a share of gross rent from which each computes his own deductions. Sub-section (2) gives each co-owner the section 21(6) relief in his own right, but it does not disturb the conditions and the limits that section 21 itself carries.
An example
Illustrative only, and invented for this page. The figures are chosen to show the rule biting, not taken from any real matter.
Two individuals own a let house in equal, clearly recorded shares. The annual value and the deductions for the property are worked out once under this Part, and each is assessed on half of the resulting income in his own return; they cannot be assessed together as an association of persons. If instead each of them occupies the house as his own residence, sub-section (2) allows each to claim the nil annual value under section 21(6) individually, rather than the two of them sharing a single relief.
Where you meet this section
In the house property schedule of each co-owner's return, and in an assessment or notice where the Assessing Officer proposes to treat joint owners of a property as one association of persons.
The words themselves
the co-owners shall not be assessed as an association of persons and their income computed separately under this Part as per their respective share shall be included in their total income
Section 24(1), Income-tax Act, 2025.
The relief available under section 21(6) shall be provided as if each co-owner is individually entitled to the said relief.
Section 24(2), Income-tax Act, 2025.
What people get wrong
Applying the section where the shares are not fixed. Sub-section (1) works only "For property co-owned with definite and ascertainable share".
Sharing a single section 21(6) relief between the co-owners. Sub-section (2) requires it to be given as if each were individually entitled.
Apportioning the rent first and computing deductions separately. Sub-section (1) requires the income to be computed under this Part and the respective share of that income to be included.
Reading sub-section (2) as removing the conditions in section 21. It only treats each co-owner as individually entitled; the limits in section 21 still apply.
What this replaced
The correspondence is the Income Tax Department’s own, from its comparison utility for the 1961 and 2025 Acts. A renumbering is the easy half; whether the words changed is the half that decides cases.
A circular binds the department, not you and not a court. Every one below was written under the 1961 Act; it reaches this section because the department’s own concordance carries the provision it names to this one.
A notification is made under a power the Act gives and, within that power, is law. These too were made under the 1961 Act and are placed here by the department’s concordance.
Notification: 71 Date of Issue : 2/4/2002 — New Jeevan Dhara and New Jeevan Akshay Plans of the Life Insurance Corporation of India specified under section 3 2002-04-02
Read this before you rely on it. Every decision below was decided under the Income-tax Act, 1961. It appears here because it is tagged to a 1961 provision that the department’s own mapping carries to section 24. That is an inference we have drawn, not a holding on the new section: where the words changed in the move, the reasoning may not survive. Treat this as the place to start looking, not as authority on the 2025 Act.
Shivani Madan v PCITHigh CourtHelps taxpayertagged s.26 My husband and I are both on the sale deed. Must half the annual value be taxed on me?
What this page does not tell you. It does not reproduce the section. Everything above was written from the section’s own text as the Income Tax Department publishes it — the text is here, and nothing here is advice on your facts. Where a figure matters, read the sub-section it comes from.
