Income-tax Act, 1961 · Chapter IV: Computation of Total Income · D.—Profits and gains of business or profession
Section 30: Rent, rates, taxes, repairs and insurance for buildings
The Income-tax Act, 1961 was repealed by the Income-tax Act, 2025 from 1 April 2026. The text is kept here because the judgments below apply it.
In plain words
This section allows taxpayers to deduct specific costs for business premises. Deductions include rent paid by tenants, current repair costs, land revenue, local rates, municipal taxes, and insurance premiums against damage or destruction. Capital expenditure on repairs is explicitly excluded from these deductions.
- Tenants can deduct rent paid for the premises.
- Tenants who undertake repair costs can deduct the amount paid for those repairs.
- Non-tenants can deduct the amount paid for current repairs to the premises.
- Sums paid for land revenue, local rates, or municipal taxes are deductible.
- Insurance premiums paid against risk of damage or destruction are deductible.
- Capital expenditure is not included in the definition of repair costs for deduction purposes.
Example: A tenant pays rent and fixes a leaky roof. They can deduct both the rent and the repair cost. An owner who is not a tenant pays to fix a broken window. They can deduct that current repair cost but not any rent.
A simplified explanation, prepared with AI assistance from the official text below and checked automatically against it for numbers and cross-references. The official text is the law and prevails over this summary. Not legal advice.
Official text
In respect of rent, rates, taxes, repairs and insurance for premises, used for the purposes of the business or profession, the following deductions shall be allowed—
(a) where the premises are occupied by the assessee—
(i) as a tenant, the rent paid for such premises; and further if he has undertaken to bear the cost of repairs to the premises, the amount paid on account of such repairs;
(ii) otherwise than as a tenant, the amount paid by him on account of current repairs to the premises;
(b) any sums paid on account of land revenue, local rates or municipal taxes;
(c) the amount of any premium paid in respect of insurance against risk of damage or destruction of the premises. [Explanation.—For the removal of doubts, it is hereby declared that the amount paid on account of the cost of repairs referred to in sub-clause (i), and the amount paid on account of current repairs referred to in sub-clause (ii), of clause (a), shall not include any expenditure in the nature of capital expenditure.]
Source: India Code (Legislative Department), the text of the Act as it stood before its repeal. Words in square brackets [ ] were inserted or substituted by later amending Acts, and *** marks words omitted by an amendment. The amendment footnotes are not reproduced here. Official text on India Code.