Circular No. 31

What it does

Brings photographers and television news-film cameramen within the word 'artist' in section 80RR. Section 80RR, inserted by Finance Act, 1969 with effect from 1 April 1970, lets a resident individual who is an author, playwright, artist, musician or actor, and who derives income from foreign sources in the exercise of his profession and receives or brings it into India in foreign exchange in accordance with the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947, deduct 25 per cent of the income so received or brought in computing his total income. The Board examined whether 'artist' takes in photographers and television news-film cameramen, and decided that it does.

Why it was issued

The Board had occasion to examine whether the term 'artist' in the newly inserted section covered photographers and television news-film cameramen.

Who it reaches

Resident photographers earning from foreign sources
Television news-film cameramen paid from abroad
Assessing Officers allowing deduction under section 80RR from assessment year 1970-71
Authors, playwrights, musicians and actors already named in the section

The provisions it speaks to

Left, the provision of the Income-tax Act, 1961 as the instrument itself names it. Right, the section of the Income-tax Act, 2025 that the department’s own concordance maps it to — which is where the same ground is now covered.

Under the 1961 Act	Now
s.1	s.1
s.80RR	no counterpart recorded

The instrument, as the Board published it

The words below are the department’s own, reproduced from its published text. Where the department’s copy carried a publisher’s notes after the instrument, those are not reproduced.

SECTION 80RR l PROFESSIONAL INCOME FROM FOREIGN SOURCES IN CERTAIN CASES
609. Whether term’artist’includes photographers and TV cameramen for the purposes of deduction under the section
1. Section 80RR was inserted through the Finance Act, 1969, and will have effect from April 1, 1970. Under this section, a resident individual, being an author, playwright, artist, musician or actor who derives income, in exercise of his profession, from foreign sources and receives such income in India and brings it into the country in foreign exchange in accordance with the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947, is entitled to deduct 25 per cent of the income so received or brought, in the computation of his total income.
2. In this connection, the Board had occasion to examine whether the term "artist" includes photographers and TV news-film cameramen. It has been decided that photographers and TV cameramen can be regarded as artistes for the purpose of section 80RR.
Circular : No. 31 [F. No. 77/69-IT(A-I)], dated 25-10-1969.

What to watch

Falling within 'artist' is only the first hurdle; the income must be from foreign sources, earned in the exercise of the profession, and received in or brought into India in foreign exchange under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947.
The deduction is 25 per cent of the income so received or brought in, not of the whole professional income.
The circular deals with section 80RR as inserted, effective from 1 April 1970, at the rate and on the conditions the text sets out.
The individual must be resident; the section is of no use to a non-resident photographer.

Where you meet it

In an assessment where a section 80RR claim by a photographer or cameraman is questioned on the ground that he is not an artist.

On the same provision

Other instruments in this library that name the same provision of the 1961 Act. They are not necessarily still operative, and a later one may have replaced an earlier one without saying so.

Notification No. 70/2026 [F. No. 500/Misc./S10(23FE)/FT&TR-II] / SO 2768(E) : Infrastructure Sub-sector Businesses Notified under Schedule V — 2 the Gazette of INDIA : Extraordinary [Part Ii—sec. 3(ii)] 1 June 2026
Notification No. 17/2023 [F. No. 500/05/2018-FT&TR-III] — Ministry of Finance 6 April 2023
Circular No. 22/2022 — Condonation of delay under section 119 2 b of the income tax act 1961 in filing of form no.10a 1 November 2022
Circular No. 41/2016 — Circular No.41 of 2016 21 December 2016
Notification No. 98/2016 [F. No. 149/144/2015-TPL (Part-II)] / S.O. 3289(E) — [To BE Published in the Gazette of INDIA, Extraordinary, Part-ii, section 3, Sub-section (ii)] 25 October 2016
Notification No. 7/2016 [F.No.173/394/2015-ITA-I] / SO 529(E) — 2 the Gazette of INDIA : Extraordinary [Part Ii—sec. 3(ii)] 19 February 2016

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A circular binds the department, not you and not a court. The Board issues a circular to its own officers. An assessee may hold the department to a circular that helps him; the department cannot hold an assessee to one that hurts him, and the Tribunal and the courts decide the law for themselves.

Source: the Income Tax Department’s own published text — its page for this instrument.

What this is