I have a rather (IMO) complicated situation, I'd like some clarification on a few points
(Note: all dates, names and numbers below are fictional, just made up to clarify the situation)
India, Sep/2015:
- Salaried and working in India
- I take a home mortage loan for 20L rupees, floating rate, payable over 120 months
- I start the construction work on my house
- 2 joint owners (one is me) and the loan is taken by both owners
- Other owner has no income
- My name is not the first name on the borrower list (this seems to matter for some reason)
India, Oct/2015
- I start making EMI payments
- Construction on going
India, Mid Apr/2016
- I get and accept an offer from a US company
- I relocate to the US after resigning from Indian company
- I continue making EMI payments
- Construction still on going on
- I file IT returns for the monies earned during the financial year 2015-2016
- I cant claim any benefit/relief on interest paid/principal amount (80C) as the construction work is still incomplete
US, Jun/2016
- Construction still on going on, seems to take forever
- I start remitting some money every month to my Indian bank account to keep the requisite funds to pay the EMI as well as keep the work going
US, Dec/2016
- After multiple unavoidables delays, construction still on going on
- I am still remitting money to India
India, Jan/2017
- Construction almost done, expected to completed by Feb/2017
- No or very little salary/income from interest on deposits
- TDS already deducted throughout the year
- Net income in India < exemption limit according to IT slabs
Some additional notes
- I will be filing my IT returns every year irrespective of income
- It is my understanding that the IT relief on interest paid can be claimed over a period of 5 years in equal installments (20% each year) AFTER the completion of the house but NOT before that.
- As my total income in India is already in the lowest tax bracket (0%) it automatically means I can get a complete refund of all the TDS and income tax.
So my questions are:
Can I claim a 20% of the interest paid over the period of Oct/2015 through Mar/2017 (18 months) when I file for IT returns this year in Mar/2017?
Does my name not being the first name affect my eligibility of claiming the relief?
Does that mean I my claiming the 20% relief on interest (and the remaining 80% over subsequent years) is in effect moot as my "taxable" income cannot go negative (meaning the govt cannot/will not return some money I have paid as IT in prior years)?
Does that mean as long as I continue to work in the US (already having become a NRI), have little or no income in India, I cannot claim any future relief regarding the principal or interest?
First post here, Please be considerate before hitting the down vote button if you feel the need to. Please leave a comment so that I can improve the question if possible.