The long awaited Direct Tax Code Bill 2009 (‘Code’) was finally unveiled by the Finance Minister on August 12, 2009. The Code seeks to bring all direct taxes under one code and pave way for a single unified tax reporting system. The Finance Minister has indicated that the Code has been drafted on a clean [...]

For Individuals and Hindu Undivided family The code proposes to exempt the general tax payer from paying income tax if his income is Rs 1,60,000 in a year. He would pay just zero tax till an income of Rs 1,60,000 per year. From income above Rs 1,60,000 till Rs 10 lakh (Rs 1 million), he [...]

From April 1, 2011, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has proposed to simplify the income-tax regime by reducing the tax rates on incomes above Rs1.6 lakh per annum (Rs1.9 lakh for women, and Rs2.4 lakh for senior citizens), but the reduced rates will come with few of the current exemptions.

Due date of July 31 fast approaching, it is that time of the year again when the nation’s tax payers scramble to file I-T returns. After all, filing of tax return is compulsory for everyone whose gross total income exceeds the basic exemption limit. For financial year 2007-08, for instance, the basic exemption limit was [...]

15 Amendment to give effect to reverse mortgage scheme 15.1 The Finance Minister, in paragraph 89 of his speech, while presenting the Union Budget, 2007-08, had announced that the National Housing Bank (NHB) will introduce a reverse mortgage scheme for senior citizens. In pursuance of this announcement, some of the banks have already formulated scheme [...]

Section 80C of the Income-tax Act provides for a deduction of up to Rs. One lakh to an individual or a Hindu undivided family (HUF) for:- (i) making investments in certain savings instruments; or (ii) incurring expenditure on tuition fee and repayment of housing loan.