HUF — Hindu Undivided Family
What it means
An HUF is a separate taxable 'person' under the Income-tax Act consisting of persons lineally descended from a common ancestor, including wives and unmarried daughters. It is assessed separately from its members, with its own PAN, slab benefits and deductions.
Where you meet it in the CA course
Residence rules for HUF (Intermediate Paper 3), clubbing questions, and the concept of karta and coparceners recur across tax papers; partnership and family-arrangement questions in law papers also touch it.
Worked example
A family's ancestral property rental of ₹6,00,000 assessed in the HUF's hands enjoys its own basic exemption and 80C deductions, separate from the karta's personal salary income.
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Talk to usWho can be the karta of an HUF?
The senior-most coparcener manages the HUF as karta; after the 2005 amendment to the Hindu Succession Act, daughters are coparceners too, and courts have recognised a senior-most daughter's right to be karta.
How is an HUF's residential status determined?
An HUF is resident in India unless the control and management of its affairs is situated wholly outside India; it is 'not ordinarily resident' based on the karta's personal stay history.