This Tax Alert summarizes a recent ruling of the Special Bench (SB) of Kolkata Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) in the case of Shree Capital Services Ltd. (Taxpayer) vs. ACIT (ITA No. 1294 (Kol) of 2008) in which the SB held that, prior to financial year 2005-06 (assessment year 2006-07), derivative transactions in shares were covered by the definition of speculative transactions (ST). The SB further held that the exception to the definition of ST, from tax year 2005-06, in respect of eligible derivative transactions carried out on recognized stock exchanges, is not clarificatory in nature and does not have a retrospective effect for earlier years.
This article summarizes a recent ruling of the Supreme Court (SC) [2009-TIOL100-SC-IT] in the case M/s Liberty India (Taxpayer), in which the SC held that the receipts, by way of Duty Drawback and sale of Duty Entitlement Pass Book (DEPB) licence by the Taxpayer, do not form part of the profits ‘derived from’ the industrial undertaking (IU), eligible for tax holiday under the Indian Tax Law (ITL). The SC further held that the Duty Drawback and sale of DEPB licence are incentives which flow from the schemes framed by the Government of India (G01) and do not have any direct nexus with the profits derived from the eligible IU of the Taxpayer.
Taxpayers in the infrastructure sector are often engaged in the execution of construction activities, which form a minor portion of a contract for the development of an infrastructure facility. This ruling provides guidance on whether a contactor simplicitor would be entitled to tax holiday under the ITL, in respect of the construction activities carried out by it. This ruling makes it clear that tax holiday would be denied to a person who merely executes any works contract/construction activity but does not own the infrastructure developed by it. The ruling also holds that the person who does not undertake development of the entire facility but develops only part of it would not be entitled to tax holiday benefit.
We all know about the requirements of forming a Company in India. Incorporation of a Company, as a secretarial practice, may not be a complicated exercise. It is not difficult to get the Director Identification Numbers (DIN) for the proposed directors in the Company to be incorporated, it is not difficult to get Digital Signatures, it is not difficult to find the availability of name with the Registrar of Companies by filing e-form and it may not be difficult to comply with all the requirements and submitting an application to the Registrar of Companies
This article summarizes a recent ruling of the Special Bench (SB) of the Mumbai Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) [ITA No. 7315/Mum/2007] in the case of DCIT vs. Manjula Shah (Taxpayer) which held that, in the case of gifted capital asset, indexation benefit is available to a donee from the year of its acquisition by the previous owner. The SB adopted a purposive construction of the definition of ‘Indexed Cost of Acquisition’ (ICOA) by looking at the scheme of the Indian Tax Law (ITL), which seeks to grant the benefit of cost and holding period of the previous owner to the donee.
This ruling provides guidance that withdrawal from a revaluation reserve is permitted to be reduced from the book profit, computed under the MAT provisions, only in a case where the book profit was increased by the amount of revaluation reserve in the year of creation.
Levy of sales tax on a higher percentage on ‘superior kerosene oil’ (SKO) (also called white kerosene oil) and also levy of resale tax and surcharge on it by Tamil Nadu Government have been upheld by the Madras High Court. The attack by dealers that levy of different rates for same commodity was discriminatory was turned down by the Court which ruled that such allegation of discrimination would “amount to questioning legislative policy of the State to tax a particular commodity”.
Accounting regulator, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has decided to allow officials of the Indian Audits and Accounts Service (IA&AS)—the stream of civil servants who audit state-run companies—acquire the chartered accountancy (CA) qualification in less than the usual time. Officers of IA&AS, a central government service under the government’s statutory auditor the Comptroller and Auditor General of India , will now be able to become qualified CAs by undergoing only two years of training rather than the mandatory three year training called articleship.
At the beginning of each calendar year i.e. in the month of January, the Range Head in consultation with the concerned Assessing Officer would identify at least 5 pending time-barring assessment cases in respect of each Assessing Officer of his Range for monitoring. These should normally include cases taken up for scrutiny with the permission of CCIT. The selection should be done jointly by the Range Head and the concerned Assessing Officer. Cases of PSUs and loss-making concerns should normally not be identified for this purpose. This exercise should also include those Ranges which are held as additional charge by a Range Head in January.
19 PwC tax partners have resigned following the resignation of the PwC tax head Dinesh Kanabar on Saturday December 26. Among the people who quit today are H Kotak, G Mistry and R Dhume – all of whom have joined KPMG. All the resigning partners were originally from RSM.
