Direct Tax Code

The government will take inputs from various stake holders before giving final shape to Direct Taxes Code, said the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee while addressing the second meeting of the parliamentary consultative committee attached to the Ministry of Finance, here today. Full Article

The government is likely to ease the incidence of minimum alternate tax, or MAT, on infrastructure companies. The department of revenue plans to change the proposed direct tax code to exempt these companies from MAT for the first few years since they execute projects with long gestation periods. The code, in its current form, says all companies must pay MAT based on their gross asset value. In the case of infrastructure companies, this is very high since their asset base.. Full Article

A senior revenue department official told , There are three issues on which a political call is required. These are: the exempt-exempt- tax regime for retirement savings, the 2 per cent minimum alternate tax on gross tax assets of companies and the proposal to tax charitable organisations at 15 per cent. Hectic lobbying by interest groups is still on for dilution or an altogether elimination of these proposals from the final draft. Full Article

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday indicated the government could rewrite the new direct tax code to make it acceptable to all stakeholders. On the tax code, he said, the government would attempt to build consensus on the proposals. “I have laid a certain proposal in the form of a direct tax code. But it is not the Bhagwad Gita and it cannot be said that it cannot be changed,” he added. Full Article

As a first step towards simplifying and bringing about structural changes in direct taxes, the new Direct Taxes Code („Code?) Bill 2009 has been released for public debate. This is expected to be presented in the winter session 2009 of the Parliament. The Code, once enacted, is proposed to be effective from 1st of April 2011. Full Article

The concept of Minimum Alternate Tax (“MAT”) was introduced in the Indian tax regime to widen the tax net. Often there were situations where companies declared both profits and dividends but were not liable to taxation on account of various incentives and exemptions provided under the income tax legislation. MAT ensured that such companies were liable to pay some tax. As per the existing provisions of the Income tax Act, 1961, certain companies are liable to pay a fi.. Full Article

The definition of Capital asset continues in DTC. However the DTC classifies assets into two broad categories i.e. investment assets, and business assets. DTC envisages taxing income from transfer of investment assets as capital gains. Under the Income Tax Act 1961 (“Act”), income from transfer of capital assets even if used for business purposes was taxed as capital gain. DTC proposes to tax income from transfer of business capital assets as “business income” an.. Full Article

Premium Punch:- At present, premium payment for a life insurance policy is tax-exempt provided the premium amount is not more than 20 per cent of the sum assured. Similarly, any sum received under a life insurance policy – be it money back at regular intervals, death benefit, maturity benefits, including bonus and loyalty additions – is tax-free. Full Article