The taxman may have to consider naming some top ten stock exchanges around the world as ‘recognised stock exchanges’ for the purpose of Rule 40C, suggest Mr Sanjiv Agrawal and Mr Amitabh Singh, Partners, Ernst & Young, commenting on the new income-tax rule on thevaluation of ESOPs (employee stock options) for the purpose of FBT (fringe benefit tax).

New Delhi, Oct 25 The Government has approved easing of labour laws to exempt establishments employing up to 40 workers from maintaining mandatory registers and submitting returns.The Government proposes to introduce a simplified form, which will give relief to employers of such establishments, who are currently required to maintain registers and submit returns under various labour laws, the Information and Broadcasting Minister, Mr Priyaranjan Dasmunsi, told presspersons after a Cabinet meeting here.

M Damodaran, Chairman, Sebi, while addressing the new policy on P-notes said that this is not a board meeting to decide on a single issue. He said the stock exchanges would be mandated to onstitute a committee chaired by a non-executive member of a concerned exchange to focus on surveillance. This, he feels, would make the market a safer place for investors.He was speaking to mediapersons after the Sebi board meet today. The meet also saw new policy announcements like clearing of Sebi’s proposal to have an SME exchange.

Corporates houses, banks and financial institutions have got just 18 months to begin the changeover to a new set of transparency, inducing accounting standards that will have a major impact on their financial statements. The new norms to classify, value and disclose the complex financial instruments they trade in is expected to change the way exposure to many instruments are reported now, besides capturing many unreported exposures. Accounting standard setter the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) last Friday decided to introduce the new standards —recognition and measurement of financial instruments — from April 1, 2009.

The Supreme Court has ruled that all injured persons especially in the case of road traffic accidents, assaults, etc., when brought to a hospital / medical center, have to be offered first aid, stabilized and shifted to a higher centre / government centre if required. It is only after this that the hospital can demand payment or complete police formalities. In case you are a bystander and wish to help someone in an accident, please go ahead and do so. Your responsibility ends as soon as you leave the person at the hospital.

All tax deductors / collectors are required to file the TDS / TCS returns in Form No.24Q (for tax deducted from salaries), Form No.26Q (for tax deducted from payments other than salaries) or Form No.27EQ (for tax collected at source). These forms require details of all tax deductions with name and permanent account number (PAN) of parties from whom tax was deducted.

How is the FBT to be valued? And when is the tax payable? The fringe benefit is to be valued at the fair market value (FMV) of the security or sweat equity share on the date of vesting of the option minus any amount paid by / recovered from the employee for such security or shares. The FMV is to be determined a s per the method to be prescribed by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). The employer company is required to pay advance tax of estimated FBT progressively: 15 per cent by June 15, 45 per cent by September 15, 75 per cent by December 15 and 100 per cent by March 15 of the fiscal year.

Return of Income Tax [with/without FBT Return]: 1. Person not required to be audited – 31st July. 2. Person required to be audited – 31st October. Payment of Advance Taxes of Income Tax – Individual/Firms: * 1st Payment of 30% – 15th September. * 2nd Payment of 60% – 15th December. * 3rd Payment of 100% – 15th March.

ITD has notified revised file formats for preparation of TDS and TCS returns in electronic form. Deductors/collectors can prepare the e-TDS/TCS returns as per these file formats using in-house software or any other third party software and submit the same to any of the TIN-FCs established by NSDL. Deductors/collectors can also directly upload the e-TDS/TCS returns through NSDL-TIN website. NSDL has developed software called e-TDS/TCS Return Preparation Utility (RPU) to facilitate preparation of e-TDS/ TCS returns. This is a freely downloadable MS excel based utility. Separate utilities are available for preparation of each type of return.

Income Tax Department has notified the file format (data structure) for preparation of Annual Information Returns. Filers can prepare the AIR as per the file format using in-house software or any other third party software or the return preparation utility developed by NSDL (AIR RPU) and submit the same to any of the TIN-FCs established by NSDL or directly upload through the NSDL-TIN website.