Tax Planning :- Tax planning as a concept had at a point of time suffered degradation and for a while seemed to be a euphemism for tax evasion. This was the fall-out of some observations in McDowell’s case, [154 ITR 148 (SC)] especially in the separate opinion of Justice Chinnappa Reddy. But the libel did not stay too long. Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Justice of the Supreme Court salvaged its respectability by observing tax avoidance by genuine transactions is not evil.
It is common knowledge that public information officers often do not furnish the information sought by the applicant under Right to Information Act (RTI). Is an appeal to the appellate authority of the Information Commission the only remedy? Or would failure to furnish information without valid reason constitute a deficiency in service for which compensation can be sought by filing a consumer complaint? This issue has been decided by the National Commission in a trendsetting judgment.
Section 195 of Companies Act, 1956 says that where minutes of the proceedings of any general meeting of the company or of any meeting of its Board of directors or of a committee of the Board have been kept in accordance with the provisions of section 193, then, until the contrary is proved, the meeting shall be deemed to have been duly called and held, and all proceedings thereat to have duly taken place, and in particular, all appointments of directors or liquidators made at the meeting shall be deemed to be valid.
Typically in real estate transactions, the land holder contributes the land, the developer constructs the building and sells the flats along with the proportionate rights in respect to the land. As a result, each owner becomes the owner of an apartment with corresponding undivided share in the land arid an undivided share in the common areas. The usual feature of such agreements is that the land holder will have no say or control in the development.
Q.1 The amended section 6A of CST Act, 1956 requires the transferor branch to obtain ‘F’ form from the transferee branch and on failure to obtain the same the transaction is presumed to be sale. Whether such amendment can be said to be constitutionally valid, as it may amount to levy of tax on Consignment?
In this article, the proposed amendments by The Finance (No. 2) Bill, 2009 relating to sections 56(2), 57, 145A, 271(1) Explanation 5A and 281B, are briefly discussed. These amendments proposed in the Finance (No. 2) Bill, 2009, are aimed towards rationalizing the provisions of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (“the Act”) in order to bring out the true and correct intention of the legislature for enacting the above provisions.
It was zero-tax companies, which were profitable and paid dividends to shareholders but owing to various deductions/sops available under the tax laws did not have a taxable income and thus did not pay tax, that caught the attention of the legislators and led to the introduction of MAT. Under the existing provision a company is liable to pay minimum tax u/s. 115JB on its book profit @ 10% if the tax payable by such company on the total income under the other provisions of the Act is less than the tax payable under MAT. The credit of taxes such paid can be carried forward u/s. 115 JAA for 7 years to be set off against the tax liability arising under the other provisions of the Act. At the same time the section provides for the specific additions and deductions that are to be made to book profit in order to arrive at the profit as per section 115JB of the Act.
Amendment of section 90 :-The Finance Bill (No. 2) 2009 proposes to replace the existing Section 90 with a new section 90. The new section 90 is substantially the same as earlier section 90 except that the proposed amendment seeks to empower the Central Government to enter into an agreement with the Government of any country outside India or a specified territory outside India, inter alia, for avoidance of double taxation of income.
Definitions – Manufacture – Clause 3 – S 2 (29BA):- Clause 3 of the Finance Bill 2009 has sought to introduce sub section 29BA in section 2 of the Income Tax Act wherein the manufacture is defined for the first time The amendment is to take effect retrospectively from 1st April, 2009 and would apply in relation to Assessment Year 2009-2010 and subsequent years. . The amendment read as follows:
The Finance Bill, 2009 has introduced changes in the provisions relating to deduction for scientific expenditure incurred by an assessee in connection with his business. Clause 12 of the Finance Bill, 2009 proposes to substitute the following words in sub-section 2AB of section 35 of the Income-tax Act:
