Dilip Lakhani, Senior Chartered Accountant, answers income tax related queries from our readers.

I have a retail business of readymade garments. For FY 15-16, I filed my return of income on March 31, 2017. The delay in filing returns due to sickness of my accountant. I have paid tax with interest. I had suffered losses on sale of shares of unlisted company amounting to Rs 5 lakh in FY 15-16. I have filed my return of income for Assessment Year (AY) 17-18 on July 20, 2017. I have earned capital gains of Rs 8 lakh on sale of property in June 2017. Can I offset the loss suffered on sale of shares held for more than 5 years in AY 16-17 against gain on sale of property held for 3 years?
You have filed your return of income for AY 16-17 beyond the prescribed time limit under Section 139 (1)of I T Act. As the return of income for AY 16-17 is not filed in time, you cannot adjust long-term capital loss of AY 16-17 against long-term capital gain of AY 18-19.

Every person must file return of income in time to claim the benefit of carry forward of loss to be adjusted against future income. Your loss for AY 16-17 will lapse.

I am an executive working in the private sector. I regularly invest in shares and report income under capital gains. I borrowed Rs 10 crore from a non-banking finance company and made application in an IPO, and was allotted a few shares.I have paid an interest of Rs 3 lakh. My salary income is Rs 70 lakh and interest income from loan given is Rs 4 lakh. Can I offset interest paid on borrowing for making application in IPO against salary or interest income?
Loan taken from NBFC is utilised for making application in IPO. You are treating investment in shares as capital asset. Interest paid on borrowing to acquire capital asset is not allowable as deduction against salary income or income from other sources.

You can't offset the interest paid against interest income or salary income. You may add the interest paid to the cost of the shares allotted to you. However, on this proposition there are contrary views and you may have to litigate with the tax department.