The Central Board of Direct Taxes (“CBDT”) had released the draft Direct Tax Code (“DTC”) in August 2009 with a view to simplify tax legislation in India. Based on the response and comments received for the DTC, the CBDT has released “Revised discussion paper on The Direct Tax Code” (“revised draft” / “revised discussion paper”). The revised draft proposes certain modifications to the DTC. The revised DTC is proposed to be presented in the monsoon session 2010 of the Parliament and will become law effective 1 April 2011 once enacted.
A survey u/s 133A was conducted on 28.10.04 at the premises of a charitable trust of which the assessee was the managing trustee. The assessee admitted unaccounted income of Rs. 1.93 crores.
In line with the nation’s approach to economic reforms, the IRDA has initiated reform measures around the principle of sustainable growth along with public accountability. Therefore protecting the interests of policyholders is the main mission of IRDA and the Authority’s efforts have been constantly directed towards this end.
The committee constituted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to look into the issue of customer service by banks to small borrowers including pensioners will hold its first meeting this month. It will submit its report within four months after the meeting.
Through Finance Act 2010, the government had sought to levy service tax on renting of immovable property to businesses, despite the fact a similar law enacted three years ago remained non-enforceable, thanks to a Delhi High Court ruling on a petition challenging the law filed by major retailers.
Companies managing to evade taxes on services received from abroad, such as management consultancy and banking, now may not be able to to do so as the government is all set to plug the loopholes in the system which helped flourish the practice till now.
In respect of other employees, it is to be determined whether they receive gratuity from an employer covered under the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 or not. It is pertinent to note that every gratuity payment received by an employee is not exempt from tax per se. In this context, it is important to note the provisions of the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 read with the Income Tax Act, 1961.
Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) have been in existence in India for quite some time now. But so far ETFs have not enjoyed the kind of popularity that the conventional Mutual Funds enjoy. One reason could be the lack of understanding of the concept of ETF amongst the general investor. Second, and probably the more important reason, is that ETFs by nature track a certain index (e.g. Nifty or the Bankex).
PricewaterhouseCoopers has improved its commend of FTSE100 audit clients increasing its share of the top flight to 41 in the second quarter of this year. According to the Hemscott adviser rankings PwC remains the biggest auditor among Blue Chips though overall KPMG has improved its position among to maintain the firm’s lead in having the most audit clients among listed companies.
A federal appeals court ruled against PricewaterhouseCoopers in a long-running bankruptcy case that could now examine whether the firm acted in good faith as the auditor for a defunct hospital system. The case involved the Allegheny Health, Education and Research Foundation, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit hospital system that filed for bankruptcy in July 1998 with approximately $1.3 billion in debt, according to Reuters.
