Treat this as capital receipt in order to not pay the tax. If you have received extra amount than what you paid then in that case you will have to pay tax on extra amount that has been received by you.

if in case you receive a notice from IT department in future then you may give the clarification to them.

regards

If the said amount is received as a result of court order or petition it will not be considered as income

this cannot be shown as income

you did not earn this amount

it was your own amount only which you paid to builder and on the builder defaulting to deliver, he simply refunded that amount to you

in fact you can claim losses for 2 lacs as you received back only 18 lacs and not the full 20 lacs

had the builder paid you the principal plus interest, then the interest component would be taken as your income and charged to tax

ask your CA to show under which provision he says that this amount of 18 lacs will be taken as your income?

No this is not income if the amount is received from compromise then in that case the deed can be produced along with the details of the case and previous payments.

it doesn’t come under capital gains tax, but will be added to other income and taxed accordingly. 

If you have reflected this amount in an earlier ITR towards purchase of property now you can show it as cancellation of sale agreement and return of booking amount.

There are five heads income -

• Income from Salary
• Income from House Property
• Income from Profits and Gains of Business or Profession
• Income from Capital Gains
• Income from Other Sources.

And your 18 lacs dose not come under any, i think it will set off.

If you have paid the tax while earning the money then this money will not be taxable as it is not a capital gain or you are not getting interest on your investment and it is just return of principal amount you have given to builder