The issue of transfer price affects various types of taxes. Under Custom Laws, special valuation branch examines the validity of the transaction value between associated enterprises. In Service Tax law, service tax has been imposed on import of service through reverse charge method and it is expected that Service Tax department would like to examine the value of services imported (or exported) to associated enterprises. In Income Tax, it is transfer price mechanism which takes care of this situation.

Tax payers can expect some relief from high inflation in Budget 2011-12 as the government may raise the income tax exemption limit for individuals. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is alive to the price situation and its impact on the common man,” s

The Delhi High Court in the Home Solution Retail India case had held that renting of immovable property is not a taxable service. The Government as usual filed an appeal in the Supreme Court and the whole Department is under the impression that by mere filing an appeal in the Supreme Court, the High Court order has become inoperative. So demands, threats, Show Cause Notices are playing wild games in the field. Even the TRU, by a letter dated 15.07.2009 directed the Departmental officers to either pursue the tax payers to pay up the service tax due or take necessary action to safeguard revenue as the dispute has not reached finality and the department has filed an appeal against the order of the Delhi High Court.

There are over five million income tax payers in India and this number is fast growing. The tax department, therefore, has to deal with millions of fresh returns every year. The tax returns along with annexures make a very huge mass of records which is nearly impossible to handle in a properly required manner.

The I-T department has asked tax payers not to give out personal details like PAN card number and information about their credit cards on the internet in the wake of mushrooming fake e-mails hitting users’ inboxes. Viewing with concern the spurt in fictitious and unauthorised e-mails landing in personal internet addresses of many people, the department is adding a word of ‘caution’ at the end of each mail sent by them.

Individuals as well as corporates may have fewer occasions to meet the taxmen in future. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) is thinking of putting in place a system in which taxpayers do not meet the assessing officer or any tax official for routine assessments. In the system being envisaged by the country’s tax regime, the tax payer would not know who his assessing officer is. Assessments will be centralised at one place where a set of officers will supervise the assessments. Each officer will be specialising in certain segment of the assessment process, such as giving credit, refunds, etc.

In a ruling that is bound to have ramifications, specially on big tax-payers , and in a move aimed at curbing tax evasion, the Central Information Commission has ruled that seeking information on income tax is not invasion of privacy. Ruling out that disclosure of information would lead to unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual

The government has decided to shelve the introduction of the unique transaction number, which tax payers need to quote along with permanent account number when tax is deducted/collected at source.The scheme was to have come into force from the new year. However, the finance ministry has not ruled out the possibility of introducing a new identity number like UTN from the next fiscal, in addition to the permanent account number to ensure prompt verification and granting of tax credits to tax payers.

The forthcoming Union budget may have an anti-avoidance provision, which can effectively check convoluted transactions devised exclusively for the purpose of evading paying taxes in India. The finance ministry, said revenue department officials, is contemplating the idea of vesting powers with the commissioners of Income-tax (I-T) to declare a transaction a sham, if there is a reason to believe that its purpose is to avoid tax in this country.

After the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of ACIT vs. Rajesh Jhaveri Stock Brokers (P) Ltd. delivered on 23-5-2007 and reported at (2007) 291 ITR 500 (SC), a large number of actions are being initiated u/s. 147/148 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (‘the Act’ for short) and often high-pitched Income tax assessments are being made at several places.