Section 152 - Deduction in respect of royalty on patents
A resident individual patentee who is the true and first inventor can deduct qualifying patent royalty, capped at ₹3 lakh, for patents registered on or after 1 April 2003.
Reviewed by CA Nikhil Gupta · Updated 9 October 2026
Current law and effective date
Section 152 is controlled against the consolidated Income-tax Act, 2025 as amended by the Finance Act, 2026. The Act and Income-tax Rules, 2026 operate from 1 April 2026; earlier years and saved proceedings require the repeal-and-savings framework rather than automatic migration.
Primary statute: Income Tax Department consolidated Act | Rules: Notified Income-tax Rules, 2026
2-minute decode
A resident individual patentee who is the true and first inventor can deduct qualifying patent royalty, capped at ₹3 lakh, for patents registered on or after 1 April 2003.
Who should use this section
Resident individual inventors who are true and first inventors and receive qualifying royalty from an eligible registered patent.
Old-law bridge
Section 80RRB
The old-law bridge is navigational, not automatic precedent transfer. Match the 1961 Act wording, saved proceedings, current 2025 Act text and effective date before importing an older interpretation.
Finance Act 2026 / current-law note
No section-specific Finance Act, 2026 textual substitution is separately flagged for section 152; the consolidated post-Finance-Act-2026 text remains the controlling version and must be used instead of pre-1 April 2026 extracts.
Professional alert
Rules 71 and 72 require Forms 37 and 38 where applicable. Assignment, co-ownership, foreign remittance and patent registration facts matter.
Connected Income-tax Rules, 2026 and Forms
Worked application
A qualifying inventor receives ₹2.7 lakh patent royalty under the registered patent terms. Subject to certificates and definitions, ₹2.7 lakh can be deducted.
Evidence / compliance checklist
- Preserve the primary agreement, certificate, account statement or transaction record that establishes the facts relevant to section 152 (Deduction in respect of royalty on patents).
- Reconcile the section 152 amount to books, return schedules and third-party evidence so the computation can be reproduced without relying on a narrative assertion.
- Keep the current-law source and any prescribed Rule/Form evidence with the tax-year file for section 152; do not rely on a legacy 1961 Act form merely because the section has an old-law bridge.
- Where section 152 contains a threshold, election or time limit, retain dated evidence proving that the condition was satisfied before the return or proceeding was finalised.
Common mistake
A common section 152 error is to apply the old-law label or headline rate without rebuilding the current statutory conditions. For “Deduction in respect of royalty on patents”, the safer control is to test the exact taxpayer/transaction facts, the operative tax year, every linked Rule/Form and the Finance Act 2026 consolidated wording. Rules 71 and 72 require Forms 37 and 38 where applicable. Assignment, co-ownership, foreign remittance and patent registration facts matter.
Recommended approach
For section 152, start with the legal trigger in “Deduction in respect of royalty on patents”, document the evidence for that trigger, then run the computation or procedural step against the current text. As a cross-check, verify this provision-specific checkpoint: Resident individual patentee must be the true and first inventor.
Thresholds, periods and timing checkpoints
- Resident individual patentee must be the true and first inventor.
- Deduction ceiling: Rs 3,00,000.
- Patent must meet statutory registration/development conditions; foreign remittance and certificate rules matter.
Related provisions and interaction map
Section 152 sits within the Chapter VIII deduction framework; also test section 202 restrictions where relevant and the return/audit provisions governing this specific claim.
Current statutory text
Primary-source trail
Statute: Income-tax Act, 2025 as amended by Finance Act, 2026
Rules: Income-tax Rules, 2026
Law navigation: Income Tax Department 2025 Act / Rules hub
Quoting note: Use the official consolidated Act for verbatim legislative language.
FAQs
Does an old Income-tax Act, 1961 case automatically decide section 152?
No. The old-law bridge helps research, but transferability depends on materially matching language, transition rules and any Finance Act 2026 change.
Which text should be quoted in advice or litigation?
Quote the consolidated official statute for the relevant tax year. If this page presents a provision summary rather than complete statutory text, use the official consolidated Act for verbatim legislative language.