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Inflation and Taxes

Remember when our parents used to complain about the rising price of various commodities every day? Well, we might not have understood them then, but now that we have to pay our own bills, we all surely feel the pinch of inflation. 

To put it very simply, inflation means a rise in the price of goods and services and consequently, it also means a fall in the purchasing power of money. While inflation is generally looked down upon, some economists opine that a low level of inflation at around 2% can be beneficial as it can keep the economy away from stagnation.

However, what we are witnessing today is a quite high level of inflation accompanied by slow growth. This means the price of goods and services is rising much faster than people’s income thereby eroding the standard of living of the common man.

The war between Russia and Ukraine has caused global supply chain disruptions, pushing up the prices of Crude oil and other items. This has caused leaders all around the world to take notice and come up with solutions to fight inflation.

India for example has unveiled inflation-fighting fiscal measures worth almost INR 2 lakh crore. These measures would include lowering fuel taxes, import levies and increasing subsidies on cooking gas and fertilizers.

Impact of Inflation on Income Tax

While a lot is talked about how inflation affects finances, the standard of living and spending power not much is discussed how inflation affects taxes.
That is mainly because there is no simple, straight answer to this. Inflation impacts taxes both from the perspective of the taxpayer as well as the government that is collecting and utilising the taxes. When it comes to income taxes, a high rate of inflation usually increases the tax burden on the taxpayers if taxes are not inflation adjusted. Let us understand it by means of a simple example

Capital gain is another type of income that is severely affected by a higher rate of inflation.  Consequently, capital gain taxes can significantly reduce the return on investment if they are not adjusted for inflation, Let’s consider another hypothetical case to demonstrate it

What is Inflation Indexing of Taxes?

We mentioned how the absence of Inflation Indexing can increase the tax burden on taxpayers.

But what is inflation indexing?

Inflation indexing is cost-of-living adjustments built into tax provisions to keep pace with inflation. Without inflation indexation, a greater share of a taxpayer’s income can be taxed even if their real income has not increased to that rate. The two aforementioned examples showed how your tax burden can increase owing to an increase in your nominal income, although your real income might not have increased that much.

Enough with the jargon, let’s break down inflation indexing with an example closer home.

In India, the benefit of inflation indexing is allowed on Long Term Capital Gains (except on listed equity shares & mutual funds). The logic behind providing this benefit on Long Term Capital Gains is that Long Term Capital Assets like buildings, gold, and land are usually bought and held for a long time before they are sold. Now they are recorded at cost price and their value can’t be reassessed. So, once the asset is sold, the cumulative effect of inflation on the profit will be significant and the real income will be much less compared to what will be on paper.


Let’s break it down further with an example. 

To overcome this very situation, the Indian government provides the benefit of inflation indexing. Here, the cost price of an asset (in case of long term capital gain) is adjusted as per inflation and while tax computation the inflation-adjusted price is taken as the cost price instead of the original cost price.

Cost Inflation Index

Every year, the CBDT announces the Cost of Inflation Index (CII) which is used to calculate the inflation-adjusted cost price of an asset.
And as we mentioned the inflation-adjusted price is then used to arrive at long-term capital gains or long-term losses.

2001-02 is taken as the base year and the CII for that year is 100. From that year onwards, the CII increases with the rate of inflation.

The following table shows the CII over the years

Financial YearCost Inflation Index (CII)
2001-02 (Base Year)100
2002-03105
2003-04109
2004-05113
2006-06117
2006-07122
2007-08129
2008-09137
2009-10148
2010-11167
2011-12184
2012-13200
2013-14220
2014-15240
2015-16254
2016-17264
2017-18272
2018-19280
2019-20289
2020-21301
2021-22317

Now, how to use this index to calculate your inflation adjusted cost price i.e. indexed cost of acquisition? The formula is

CII of the year of sale/CII for the year of purchase * Actual cost price

So, let us use this formula to understand the inflation-adjusted cost price of our previous example:

This is in tune with your real income, income that is adjusted to inflation and not just your nominal income.

Not just in India, many countries opt for inflation indexing of taxes to preserve the spending power of the people.

So how has inflation affected you the most? Share your thoughts with us.

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