Bachchans' cars a tax-saving ploy

Mumbai: The Bachchans have been in news for having acquired two imported cars — silver Rolls Royce Phantom and Bentley — this month.

While one turns out to be a very expensive gift to Amitabh Bachchan by filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra, the other one belongs to their family friend Amar Singh, not Abhishek Bachchan.

"Yeh to guru dakshana hai," says Amitabh Bachchan. And the 'guru' in this case, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, was only too happy to offer his side of the story: "He promised to buy me a car and since he hasn't done that so far, this is a polite reminder."

Chopra had gifted the Rs 3.5 crore Rolls Royce Phantom to Bachchan on Wednesday. "I wish he preferred bullock carts, it would have been cheaper," he says.

Chopra had reportedly signed Bachchan for his production, Eklavya, for a token fee of one rupee only. Clearly, Bachchan the actor comes much cheaper to Chopra, than Bachchan the friend, who settled for a Rolls Royce.

Looking at the bigger picture, had Bachchan charged a fee of Rs 3.5 crore for acting in a film, he would have been liable to pay 33.66 per cent tax on it, which would amount to almost Rs 1.2 crore.

But in this case, even a Rolls Royce worth Rs 3.5 crore attracts no tax penalty since it has been given as a gift by Chopra. "If someone is gifting someone a sum of money, then it is taxable else not," says Chartered Accountant Hemant Narang.

Abhishek Bachchan's Bentley is also not his after all. Bachchans' family friend and MP Amar Singh claimed to have bought the car for himself though to be stationed at his extended family—the Bachchan's residence.

"This is not a gift to Abhishek or Amitabh. It is a car bought for my use during my Mumbai trips and have paid the tax on it. It is to be used by his family members like Abhishek and Aishwarya when I'm not there," says Amar Singh.

Gifting cars is not a new practise in Bollywood. In 2004, Shah Rukh Khan gifted a Santro to Farah Khan, a little after the release of her directorial debut Main Hoon Naa.

In 2006, Sahara One Motion Pictures decided to gift a car to Madhur Bhandarkar to mark 50 days of Page 3's successful run.

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