Circular No. 137/6/ 2011– ST- Assistance provided by a visa facilitator, for obtaining visa, to a visa applicant or for foreign employer does not fall within the scope of supply of manpower service. Visa facilitators, while providing visa assistance directly to individuals does not act on behalf of the embassies, as agents of the principal and hence service tax is not leviable within the meaning of business auxiliary service. Also where the assistance is rendered to an individual directly, by a visa facilitator, and the visa applicant pays the service charge on his own (meaning such service charge is not borne by any business entity), the same cannot be considered as support service for business or commerce.
An Indian investment banker has been convicted by a US federal jury on charges of extortion and threatening a New York state comptroller official to reveal an extramarital affair if a multi-million dollar pension contract was not awarded in his favour. Giridhar Sekhar, 41, of Brookline near here was convicted of one count of attempted extortion and five counts of interstate transmission of an extortionate threat, an FBI statement said.
Income Tax returns 2011 – Only Colour Forms; No Black and White – FOR the new Income Tax returns, No Black and White forms will be accepted and only standard forms with appropriate colors prescribed, fonts used, paper size, paper quality, Bar Code Values will be accepted by the department .
“I-T department will review the property deals in Delhi and take action in appropriate cases,” Central Board of Direct Taxes chairman Sudhir Chandra told reporters here, adding that these reviews will include both individual and corporates property deals in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR – Noida, Gurgaon).
E-filing of service tax return is mandatory from 01-04-2010 in case the assessee has paid a total Service Tax of rupees ten lakhs or more including the amount paid by utilization of CENVAT credit, in the preceding financial year (2009-2010), is required to file the return electronically under sub-rule (2) of Rule 7 of the Service Tax Rules, 1994.
While CBDT made its stance of wielding the stick for tax evades clear, it also had some goods news for the honest taxpayer. Chandra assured taxpayers that if they filed e-returns, refunds could come within a month as most of the backlog had been cleared.
The Government of India has created 12 posts of Income Tax ombudsman at 12 stations namely New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Bhopal and Kochi under the Income Tax ombudsman Guidelines 2010.
Maharashtra government is expecting an entertainment tax of Rs 15 crore from the 16 Indian Premier League (IPL) matches to be held in the state. “A deposit of Rs 7.3 crore has been collected for the IPL matches organised at the Wankhede stadium in the city out of the expected revenue of Rs 9.50 crore,” Minister of State for Revenue Prakash Solanke informed the Legislative Council today.
CIRCULAR NO 136/5/2011-ST – Service provided by a restaurant having air-conditioning and license to serve alcoholic beverages in relation to serving of food or beverage, including alcoholic beverages or both, in its premises [Finance Act 1994, Section 65(105) ( zzzzv )]. Service provided by a hotel, inn, guest house, club or campsite in relation to providing of accommodation for a continuous period of less than three months[Finance Act 1994, Section 65(105) ( zzzzw )]
After having made 8.23 lakh refunds already in the first half of this month, the Income Tax Department on Monday said it will settle all the pending claims in April itself. Refunds of Rs 78,000 crore to about 85 lakh assesses were made in 2010-11. In the first half of April, the I-T Department refunded Rs 6,183 crore to 8,23,101 assesses, Chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Sudhir Chandra told reporters here.
