The suggestion usually arrives at a family lunch: a parent can gift a flat to a son or daughter for Rs 200, so why not put the home in the children's names now and spare everyone the paperwork later? The gift deed stamp duty in Maharashtra really is Rs 200 for close family. What the Rs 200 buys is the larger question: the deed makes the child the owner the day it is registered, and the law makes it very hard to take back.
Key takeaways
- Since April 2015, Article 34 of the Maharashtra Stamp Act has charged Rs 200 on a gift of residential or agricultural property to a husband, wife, son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter or deceased son's wife.
- Gifts to anyone else, parents, siblings and a living son's wife included, pay a percentage of the market value, and the registration fee is payable on top in every case.
- A gift of a flat needs a registered deed attested by at least two witnesses and accepted in the giver's lifetime, and section 126 of the Transfer of Property Act allows revocation only in narrow cases.
- A flat gifted by a relative is not the receiver's income under section 92(2)(m) of the Income-tax Act, 2025, but rent from a flat gifted to a spouse is taxed as the giver's.
- A will carries no stamp duty and can be changed until death; a release deed moves a share an heir already holds; a sale inside the family pays the full duty, and the seller is taxed on any capital gain.
Suresh and Kavita hear about the Rs 200 deed
Suresh and Kavita (illustrative, as our stories always are) live in the Pune retirement flat they bought for Rs 95 lakh without a loan, in Suresh's sole name. After their elder son pointed out that a society nomination does not decide who inherits, Suresh made a will leaving the flat to Kavita.
Their son then came back with a second idea: Maharashtra charges only Rs 200 to gift a home to a son, so why not gift the flat to him now and be done with wills? Kavita, a retired bank officer, had her own question: she wanted to be a co-owner now, not only the heir named in a will. Names and numbers in this story are illustrative.
What a gift deed is
Under section 122 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882, a gift is a transfer of property made voluntarily and without payment, and accepted by the person receiving it while the giver is alive and still able to give. For a flat, section 123 sets the form: a registered deed, signed by or for the giver and attested by at least two witnesses. Once it is registered and accepted, the flat belongs to the person who received it.
An analogy: handing over the car
Handing your daughter your car and its registration papers is a gift: from that afternoon she can sell it or lend it, and you ride in it when she offers. A note in the glovebox saying the car goes to her when you stop driving is a will: you keep driving, and you can tear the note up next month. A gift deed is the papers changing hands.
What the Rs 200 covers, and what it does not
The Maharashtra Stamp (Amendment) Act, 2015, in force from 24 April 2015, added a proviso to Article 34, the Stamp Act's gift article: a gift of residential or agricultural property to the giver's husband, wife, son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter or a deceased son's wife is charged Rs 200, whatever the property is worth.
The list is shorter than families assume. A gift from children to their parents, between brothers and sisters, or to a living son's wife falls outside it, as does a shop or an office, and those gifts are charged a percentage of the market value. The concession is also on the duty alone: registration is still compulsory, with its own fee, the gift can still be revoked only in narrow cases, and the giver still stops being the owner.
Four documents, four jobs
A gift is one of four ways a flat moves inside a family.
| Gift deed | Release deed | Will | Sale deed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What moves, and when | Ownership, now | A share already held, to a co-owner or heir, now | Nothing until death, and it can be replaced | Ownership, now, for a price |
| Stamp duty | Rs 200 for a home given to a spouse, child, grandchild or deceased son's wife; a percentage of market value otherwise | Rs 200 for ancestral property between close relatives; the sale rate on the share otherwise | None | The sale rate on the higher of price and market value, 7 percent in Pune for a man |
| Registration | Compulsory, with two attesting witnesses | Registered, like a gift | Optional | Compulsory |
| Income tax | Not income for a relative; no capital gains for the giver | Not income for a relative receiving a share free | An inheritance is not taxed as income | Capital gains tax for the seller |
| The society | Share certificate moves on the registered deed | Transmission, then the shares to the heir keeping the flat | Transmission on death, to the nominee first | A transfer, as in any resale |
A release deed lets someone who already holds a share give it up to a co-owner, which is how heirs usually settle a flat after a death without a will. Article 52 of Schedule I to the Maharashtra Stamp Act charges Rs 200 where the property is ancestral and the release runs between close relatives it names, a spouse, parent, child or sibling among them, and the sale rate on the share's market value otherwise. Check that an inherited flat counts as ancestral before drafting: on a one-third share of a Rs 95 lakh flat, the difference is Rs 200 against about Rs 1.58 lakh at 5 percent. A will moves nothing now, and the society deals with the nominee meanwhile, as nomination is not a will explains.
What each route costs
Source: Maharashtra Stamp Act, 1958, Schedule I: Article 34, which does not cover wills, and its proviso added by the Maharashtra Stamp (Amendment) Act, 2015, in force 24 April 2015; the sale at the 5 percent duty, before the metro cess and local body tax that take a Pune sale to 7 percent. Illustrative valuation.
In Pune that sale would cost the son Rs 6.65 lakh, at the 7 percent the metro cess and local body tax produce, as stamp duty and registration charges sets out.
The question is becoming more common. UNFPA and the International Institute for Population Sciences counted 149 million Indians aged 60 and above in 2022, 10.5 percent of the population, and project 347 million, 20.8 percent, by 2050, in their India Ageing Report 2023. More parents face this choice every year.
Parents who still live in the flat
A gift does not wait for its givers to move out. From the day it is complete, the child can sell or mortgage the flat without asking, and if the child dies first it passes under the child's will or succession, not the parents'.
Taking it back is hard: section 126 allows revocation only on an agreed event that does not depend on the giver's will, or on grounds that would set aside a contract, such as fraud, and a gift the parties agree the giver may revoke at will is void to that extent. Senior citizens have one more route: under section 23 of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, a transfer made on condition that the receiver provides for the giver's basic needs can be declared void by the Maintenance Tribunal if that condition fails. In January 2025 the Supreme Court set aside a mother's gift deed to her son on that ground and ordered the property restored to her (2025 INSC 20). If a gift is meant to carry that expectation, the deed should say so.
A gift of the flat you live in is not a way of writing a will early. A will can be torn up next year; a gift cannot be taken back because plans changed, and from the day it is registered you live in a flat that belongs to someone else. If the point is who gets the flat after you, a will does that job without any stamp duty at all.
The tax side
Three rules settle most family gifts under the Income-tax Act, 2025, which replaced the 1961 Act from 1 April 2026.
The receiver. A flat received free from a relative is not income, under section 92(2)(m), which replaced section 56(2)(x) of the 1961 Act. Relatives include a spouse, brothers and sisters, lineal ascendants and descendants, the same relations of the spouse, the parents' brothers and sisters, and the spouses of all of these.
The giver. A gift is not a transfer on which capital gains is charged, the rule that was section 47(iii) of the 1961 Act. But rent from a flat gifted to a spouse or a son's wife is taxed in the giver's hands, and a minor child's income is added to a parent's, under the clubbing rules, which were section 64 of the 1961 Act. A gift to an adult child is clear of this.
The next sale. When the receiver sells, the gain runs from the giver's cost, the rule that was section 49(1) of the 1961 Act.
One more check if the flat carries a capital gains exemption: Suresh's carries one from his Ahmedabad sale, clawed back if the flat is sold within three years, as capital gains on the sale of a house explains. A gift is not a sale, but ask your accountant how that condition applies before you sign.
The society's side
The deed changes the owner; the society changes the member. The receiver applies with the registered deed and its Index II, and the share certificate moves into the new name or names, with any charge capped at the Rs 25,000 ceiling explained in the share certificate and society membership. On a death the shares pass by transmission instead, to the nominee first, and no transfer premium is payable.
Before a flat changes hands, know what comes with the building. If it is in a MahaRERA-registered project, its free page on ReraGenie shows whether a document sits in the occupancy certificate slot, with its upload date (an upload, not proof the certificate was granted), and any charge the promoter has declared on the land, with the lender named.
Where families get it wrong
Treating Rs 200 as the whole bill. It is the duty. The registration fee is separate, and where a city adds a metro cess or local body tax to transfers, as Pune does on a sale, ask the sub-registrar's office for the full computation for a gift deed before booking.
Expecting Rs 200 for every relative. A gift to parents, a sibling or a living son's wife pays a percentage of the market value, as does a gift of any shop or office.
Leaving the deed unregistered. A notarised gift deed does not transfer a flat; section 123 requires registration, so the day is a sub-registrar appointment like any other, walked through in registration day at the sub-registrar.
What the filings add
A gift hands on the building's record with the flat. For a flat in a covered Maharashtra project, the Rs 499 ReraGenie buyer report sets that record out: land and title answered as five questions, among them whether the land is mortgaged and what the legal title report concludes, with the exceptions its advocate attached; complaints and cases in plain words; and the red flags and clear checks, each fact with its filing date. See the buyer report.
What Suresh and Kavita decided
They set the gift to their son aside first: it would have made him the owner of their retirement home on registration, settled now between their two children what a will could still weigh and change, and left them living in a flat no longer theirs. A sale to him was the costliest route: Rs 6.65 lakh in duty and, inside three years, the return of the tax on the Ahmedabad gain.
Kavita's question was the one a gift answers. Half the flat from Suresh would make her a co-owner now for Rs 200 in duty, before the registration fee and any local surcharge, with no rent and so nothing to club. Their accountant was asked to check the exemption's three-year condition first, and Kavita made a will for the half she would hold, because, as whose name on the agreement explains, a co-owner's share passes under its owner's own will.
The one-line summary
A home gifted in Maharashtra to a spouse, child or grandchild pays Rs 200 in stamp duty, but the deed makes them the owner the day it is registered and is very hard to undo: use a gift to transfer ownership now, a will to decide what happens after you, and a release deed to settle shares among heirs.
This article is educational and not legal advice. For a dispute, consult a lawyer who practices before your state's RERA.
This article is educational and not tax advice. Confirm the figures for your own case with a chartered accountant.
Evaluating a project right now?
The ReraGenie buyer report reads every filing for one project and sets out the red flags, the checks that came back clear and what to verify before you book, each fact with its filing date. Rs 499, one time.
See the buyer report