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Income-tax Act, 2025 | Section 94

Section 94 - Amounts not deductible

Personal expenditure and listed TDS-default payments are barred; lottery and gambling income generally receives no expense deduction, with the horse-owner exception stated in the section.

Reviewed by CA Nikhil Gupta · Updated 9 October 2026

Section 94: operativeEffective 1 April 2026Tax Year 2026-27 onwardReviewed 8 October 2026
Current-law control

Section 94 is presented using the consolidated Income-tax Act, 2025 as amended by the Finance Act, 2026. The general commencement date is 1 April 2026. Earlier years and saved proceedings may remain governed by the Income-tax Act, 1961 and the repeal/savings framework.

Finance Act 2026 control: Finance Act, 2026 substituted part of the non-deductibility framework from 1 April 2026; the current text controls Tax Year 2026-27 onward.

2-minute professional decode

Personal expenditure and listed TDS-default payments are barred; lottery and gambling income generally receives no expense deduction, with the horse-owner exception stated in the section.

Professional checkpoint: Apply the provision only after checking the defined person, tax year, evidence, thresholds and any connected Rule or Schedule.

Who should test this section?

Section 94 should be reviewed when a receipt may fall within amounts not deductible; taxpayers and advisers must first eliminate a more specific head or exclusion before using the residual head.

Evidence to retain

The section 94 support file should contain the receipt agreement, bank trail, valuation material, payer information and a written head-of-income analysis tied to amounts not deductible.

1961 Act bridge

Legacy provisionLegacy headingMapping
58Amounts not deductible.Renumbered / mapped

The bridge is a research aid. Legacy case law carries over only after the current wording and transition rules are matched.

Rules and forms linked to this section

No provision-specific Rule was independently mapped from the current Rules register for this section. That does not mean the wider Rules are irrelevant.

Worked application

A taxpayer incurs expenditure against dividend or wagering income. Section 94 can restrict or completely deny deductions even when the expense is commercially real, so the deduction test must follow the specific income category.

Common mistake

A section 94 mistake is to treat amounts not deductible as a catch-all without testing its specific inclusion, valuation, deduction and exception rules against the actual receipt.

Compliance approach

Identify the statutory trigger for section 94, lock the relevant tax year, reconcile the facts to the operative sub-section, preserve the evidence trail and separately test every linked Rule, Form, Schedule and exception before finalising the return position.

Numeric / timing checkpoints in the operative text

Related provisions

Current statutory text

94. (1) Irrespective of anything contained in section 93, the following amounts shall not be deductible in computing the income of any assessee chargeable under the head “Income from other sources”:— (a) any personal expenses of the assessee; or (b) any interest chargeable under this Act, payable outside India, on which tax has not been paid or deducted under Chapter XIX-B; or (c) any payment chargeable under the head “Salaries”, if it is payable outside India, unless tax has been paid or deducted under Chapter XIX-B. (2) The provisions of sections 29, 35(b)(i), and 36 shall apply in computing the income chargeable under the head “Income from other sources” as they apply in computing the income chargeable under the head “Profits and gains of business or profession”. (3) For an assessee, being a foreign company, the provisions of section 59 shall apply in computing the income chargeable under the head “Income from other sources”, as they apply in computing the income chargeable under the head “Profits and gains of business or profession”. 10c. Substituted by the Finance Act, 2026, w.e.f. 1-4-2026. Prior to its substitution, sub-section (2) read as under : “(2) In respect of— (a) dividend income of the nature referred to in section 2(40)(f), no deduction shall be allowed; (b) any other dividend income [other than in clause (a)], or income from units of a Mutual Fund specified under Schedule VII (Table: Sl. No. 20 or 21) or income from units of a specified company as referred to in section 2(h) of the Unit Trust of India (Transfer of Undertaking and Repeal) Act, 2002 (58 of 2002), only deduction allowed shall be interest expense which, for any tax year, shall be limited to 20% of such income (included in the total income for that year, without deduction under this section).” (4) In computing the income from winnings from lotteries, crossword puzzles, races including horse races, card games and other games of any sort, or from gambling or betting of any form or nature, no deduction for any expenditure or allowance related to such income shall be allowed under this Act. (5) Sub-section (4) shall not apply in computing the income of an assessee, being the owner of horses maintained for running in horse races, from the activity of owning and maintaining such horses. (6) For the purposes of this section, the expression “horse race” means a horse race upon which wagering or betting may be lawfully made.

Primary-source trail

Source status: full Section 94 statutory text in the local source corpus; reconciled to the current consolidated Act control on 8 October 2026.

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