Tax evasion could land you behind bars if the country’s direct taxes authority has its way. The central board of direct taxes wants to prosecute tax evaders under the tough anti-terror financing law, even as it looks to adopt a more friendly approach towards honest tax payers.
The government has taken the first concrete step towards the introduction of the goods and services tax. Since the introduction of the tax would require amendment to the Constitution, the government has sought the Supreme Court’s opinion on the amendments proposed. This will ensure these amendments are not challenged in the court later.
The big four global accountancy firms — PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Ernst & Young and Deloitte — are circumventing laws to provide auditing services in the country, says a report of an ICAI’s committee.”It has been noticed that MAFs (multinational accounting firms), entered through automatic/FIPB route for rendering consultancy services, are transgressing the permission so granted and are rendering taxation services, auditing, accounting and book keeping services and legal services,” the high-powered body probing the Satyam scam said.
Limited liability partnership (LLP), the new business vehicle that the government introduced a year ago, is moving from one hurdle to another. While Budget 2010-11 has cleared the way for small companies to convert into LLPs through capital gains tax waiver, the commerce and industry ministry is now having second thoughts on allowing FDI in LLPs.
Favours check on downstream investments by firms with minority foreign shareholding. The finance ministry has proposed to tighten the foreign direct investment (FDI) regime in the country. It has sought to route a larger number of investments by companies where the foreign stakeholding is less than 50 per cent through the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).
The Institute of Chartered and Works Accountants of India (ICWAI) southern region saw salary remaining at the same levels as last year, despite an economic recovery. Out of the 450 candidates who appeared for the campus placement, only 100 were selected.
Explanation (baa) to s. 80HHC requires that ninety per cent of receipts by way of brokerage, commission, interest, rent, charges or any other receipt of a similar nature have to be reduced from the profits. The reason why items like brokerage etc have to be excluded is because they do not possess any nexus with export turnover and their inclusion in profits would result in a distortion of the figure of export profits. However, as some expenditure might have been incurred in earning these incomes, an adhoc deduction of ten per cent from such income is allowed;
the agreement was on a principal to principal basis, (ii) the manufacturer had his own establishment where the product was manufactured, (iii) the materials required in the manufacture of the article or thing was obtained by the manufacturer from a person other than the assessee and (iv) the property in the articles passes only upon the delivery of the product manufactured, the contract was one of “sale” and there was no obligation to deduct tax u/s 194C. The fact that the assessee imposed restrictions on the manufacturer as to quality of the goods, user of trade marks etc are merely matters of business expediency.
Reduction in timelines between issue closure and listing.SEBI, in its continuing endeavour to make the existing public issue process more efficient, proposes to reduce the time between public issue closure and listing to 12 days from existing of up to 22 days. This will be applicable to public issues opening on or after May 1, 2010.
As part of its review of the existing disclosure requirements and to bring more transparency and efficiency in the governance of listed entities, SEBI has made certain amendments to the Equity Listing Agreement, vide its circular dated 05 April 2010. The key amendments relate to the following:
