Do you want to make a gift deed for your kin? Are you looking for the procedure to gift a property to your children or parents? Want to understand what a gift deed is or how it is drafted? Then you are at right place.

Let’s come to the Fine Details of a Gift Deed

A deed is a document that records the transfer of the legally held title of property from one party to another. As a rule, the only immovable property requires a deed. It records the same, the main difference being that no price is paid for the property being transferred.

It includes two parties, the donor, who is the person who passes the title and the donee, who is the person to which the property is transferred.

The transfer of a deed contains certain conditions, which must be valid for them. They are:

1. The donor should be responsible for the contract that means they must know the consequences making a deed and its full implication.
2. For a person to give a deed, they must be above 18 years old, as instructed by the Indian Contracts Law, 1872.
3. The transfer should be done out of free will and no circumstances such as coercion or undue force should have a play in it.
4. There should be no monetary consideration because then the transfer is no longer a gift.
5. For the deed to be real, it should be accepted by the donee within the lifetime of the donor.
6. The gift should be made only from the property to which the donor has a legal title over, which means that a future property cannot be transferred.
7. It is also irrevocable unless there are already certain exceptions that are written in the agreement while making the deed on the terms as to when the deed may be revoked.
8. The document which records the deed must also contain details of the demarcations of the estate being transferred like the plot number, dimensions of the property, etc., which are legitimately recognized.

All these requirements are mandated by Transfer of Property Act, 1882 and Registration Act, 1908.

According to Section 17 of Registration Act, an immovable property which is to be transferred must be registered for the deed recognized by law. For registration to take place, stamp duty and a registration fee must be paid for registration in the sub-registrar’s department under whose jurisdiction the property comes.

Registration in Punjab

The stamp duty for a gift deed is usually much cheaper than that for a sale deed because of the absence of a taxable price for the property to be transferred. As the stamp duty rate is a subject prescribed by the list of states, each state has the discretion to set its stamp duty and registration fees to collect revenue.

The applicable stamp duty in Punjab varies between 0.5% and 6% as the state is about to change its Stamp Act. However, the applicable price for a gift deed is lower than the sale deed (which is currently 6% in Punjab) and therefore the stamp duty will fall into this range. These are stamp tax, which is to be paid in Punjab for the registration of property. Due to a recent change by the Government of Punjab in 2012, no application fee will be charged if the property is transferred to any blood relative within the lifetime of the donor and the blood relatives the spouse, son, daughter, father, mother, brother, sister, grandson and granddaughter.

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