The Finance Minister Shri P.Chidambaram has said that the work on Direct Taxes Code (DTC) is in progress. Presenting the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha today, he said that the DTC is not intended to be an amended version of the Income-Tax Act, 1961 but a new code based on the international practices that [...]

10. Threshold limit for TDS: The present section 194J provides an exemption limit or threshold limit for TDS for professional fees and royalty/non-compete fees, but this limit seems to be absent under clause 200(A) (o), which could be very cumbersome for small amounts of these specific services.

On the changes suggested by the panel in the DTC, Mukherjee said two recommendations, General Anti Avoidance Rule (GAAR) and Advance Pricing Agreement (APA), have already been proposed in the Budget 2012.

The Union Finance Minister ShriPranab Mukherjee today expressed firm commitment to enact the Direct Taxes Code (DTC) Bill at the earliest, after expeditious examination of the report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee. The Bill was introduced in Parliament in August 2010, and was to come into force from April 1 this year. However, the timeline could not be adhered to as the report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the matter was received only on March 9 this year.

The committee, according to sources, wants the government to raise the income tax exemption limit to Rs 3 lakh in view of the near double-digit inflation which has eroded purchasing power of rupee. The Bill has a provision to raise the limit to Rs 2 lakh. Currently, income of Rs 1.80-5 lakh attracts 10 per cent income tax, Rs 5-8 lakh 20 per cent and above Rs 8 lakh 30 per cent.

Terming as landmark the process adopted for finalising the Direct Taxes Code (DTC), Plan Panel Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said he is not in favour of referring legislative Bills to ‘expert groups’.

Reeling under the impact of global slowdown and a high interest rate regime, India Inc on Monday demanded that tax rates be retained at existing levels even as finance minister Pranab Mukherjee expressed concerns about challenges facing the economy.In their customary pre-Budget meeting with Mukherjee, industry leaders also demanded that healthcare services be kept outside service tax ambit, and privatise coal mines.

The government is likely to provide some relief to individual income tax payers in the forthcoming Budget by raising the exemption limit to Rs 2 lakh, as provided in the Direct Taxes Code (DTC), and hiking the slabs for different tax brackets.The possibility of lowering the tax rates, however, is remote in view of the fiscal constraints being faced by the government, sources said, adding that the government will take on board some of the key recommendations of the DTC.

As we are expecting the DTC be implemented from 1st April 2012, we have to be familiar with the DTC provisions. In general the DTC looks and be simple but it is complicated unless otherwise if we have studied the entire provisions of the act because, things are spread out here and there and which are disconnected with relevant provisions. One must search the entire DTC to find solution. Hence it is sure that we should have consolidated view about the DTC provision before we conclude any issue with respect to this Code. Let us go through the DTC provisions for Income from house property.

1. Time-Limit – DTC has kept the time limit for passing final settlement orders under Section 245D(4) at 18 months, as in the IT Act, 1961, however has increased various internal time-limits as under: