Addition or reduction of exemptions in various services. Renting Service – Retrospective amendment to supersede decision of Delhi High Court in case of Home Solutions Retail India Ltd. Now activity of ‘Renting’ made taxable. Construction Service – receiving any amount from prospective buyer before completion certificate would be considered as service.
Hon’ble Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukharjee has introduced the Finance Bill, 2010 in the Lok Sabha on the 26th of February, 2010. Clause 75 and 76 of the said bill covers the legislative changes relating to Chapter V of Finance Act, 1994 (i.e. Service Tax). While some fresh exemptions from service tax have been granted, some existing exemptions have either been withdrawn or modified. All these changes have been notified under notification nos. 2/201 0–ST to 17/201 0–ST all dated 27th February 2010.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has ordered a special audit of the accounts of Bank of Rajasthan (BoR) following investigations into irregular dealings by the private sector bank. The regulator has appointed Deloitte Haskins & Sells to audit the bank’s lending policy among other things while the parent accounting and consulting firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu has been hired to audit the information security system of the bank.
Large business entities willing to convert into Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) will have to wait for some more time with the government saying that it would consider raising the limit for capital gains tax exemptions as part of the Direct Taxes Code.
construction of a new building which is intended for sale, wholly or partly, by a builder or any person authorised by the builder before, during or after construction (except in cases for which no sum is received from or on behalf of the prospective buyer by the builder or the person authorised by the builder before grant of completion certificate by the authority competent to issue such certificate under any law for the time being in force ) shall be deemed to be service provided by the builder to the buyer.
As per Memorandum on Finance Bill, 2010 a source rule was inserted in section 9 of Income-tax Act in 1976 with an intention of bringing to tax fees for Technical Services by creating a deeming fiction that even in cases where services are provided by a non-resident outside India, consideration for such services will be taxable in India so long as services are utilised in India. The source rule effectively means that the situs of the rendering of ser-vices is not relevant.
The Income Tax department has got the power to cancel any charitable organisation’s registration that accords it the benefit of tax exemption. The department can annul the registration and the exemption emanating from it if the organisation is found to violate the norms for registration, according to Budget 2010-11.
However, this was creating problems for banks using Core-Branch Banking Solutions (CBS), which enables customers to access their accounts from any branch. The Indian Banks’ Association in a representation to the Income Tax department had said that for banks using the CBS software, interest payable on fixed deposits is calculated generally on a daily or a monthly basis but is parked in the provisioning account for monitoring only.
When the finance minister in his budget speech acknowledged that the film industry has been experiencing difficulties while discussing the proposals relating to customs duties, it appeared that the industry was finally going to get a respite from controversies relating to the valuation of imported content. While the FM did rationalise the customs duty structure, on the flip side, he has imposed a service tax on transactions entailing licensing of copyright.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), working under the aegis of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, organizes campus placement programme for the benefit of newly qualified Chartered Accountants twice every year. The first phase of the programme is going on these days at 5 cities namely Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi. It will continue till 10th March, 2010.
