A gift deed transferring immovable property in India -- a house, flat, or land -- must be executed on stamp paper, signed by both donor and donee, and registered under the Registration Act, 1908 to be legally valid; stamp duty is payable on the transaction even though no money changes hands. The tax treatment on the receiving side turns on a single question: does the donor qualify as a 'relative' under Section 56(2)(x) of the Income Tax Act.
The relative exemption, and its actual scope
If the donor is a relative as the Act defines it -- spouse, parents, children and their spouses, siblings and their spouses, and (less obviously) an aunt or uncle being the sibling of either parent -- the gift is fully exempt from tax in the recipient's hands regardless of the property's value. If the donor falls outside that defined list, the immovable property is taxable as income to the recipient once its stamp duty value exceeds Rs 50,000, with the entire stamp duty value taxed, not just the amount above the threshold.
This makes the definition of 'relative' the whole ballgame: a gift from a close friend, a cousin, or an in-law's sibling outside the specific relationships listed can trigger tax on the full stamp duty value, even though a gift of the identical property from a parent or sibling would be entirely exempt.
Practical points for NRIs specifically
For an NRI donor or donee, the underlying FEMA rules on who can hold and transfer Indian immovable property still apply on top of the income tax analysis -- gifting doesn't waive them. And because clubbing of income under Section 64 can separately apply if the gift is to a spouse or minor child (see the article on clubbing for the mechanics), a gift that's exempt on receipt can still generate a tax liability for the donor once the gifted property starts producing rental income or is later sold.