If something is not taxable at all, can one exempt it? Obviously not. If one does it, it is conceptually meaningless and even absurd. Taking an excise example, it is like saying that free air is exempt. If free air is not taxable, it cannot be exempted by the government. Precisely this type of conceptual error is visible in the exemption list suggested in the Report of the Task Force of the 13th Finance Commission .
The finance ministry has quietly initiated the process of opening up the income tax files of politicians belonging to all parties and tallying their income statements with the affidavits filed by them with the Election Commission during the 2009 parliamentary polls. Verification of the assets declared by the Lok Sabha candidates, many of whom have now become MPs and even ministers, will help the department to assess if they had paid appropriate taxes as declared in their statements with the two different authorities.
Two major tax reforms due by next year promise to reduce transaction costs for exporters significantly. A simpler income-tax regime will put more money in the hands of businesses, which can invest these as they consider best. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime will reduce complications and lower the compliance costs. Together, they will help Indian businesses get more competitive.
The ready reckoner is a guide for the market price of residential and commercial properties, based on which stamp duty and registration fee for their sale and purchase are calculated. Under the revised rates, a land owner would have to pay more stamp duty because his land got more expensive; the developer would raise the sale price of his finished property since his land acquisition cost got higher; and a retail buyer would have to cough up more for property, stamp duty and registration fee.
An increasing number of companies are extending their accounting period to facilitate the change in financial year from January-December to the commonly-followed April-March cycle. By doing so, the companies would be required to publish balance sheet only for the fiscal year which is also the statutory requirement under Income-Tax Act, instead of preparing separate financial statements for two different accounting periods.
Its that time of the year when we are busy reflecting on our past and setting new goals for our future. Its that time of the year when fresh resolutions are being listed and plans for achieving greater prosperity are being inked. Welcome to 2010 the last year of the first decade of the new millennium. The New Year is a fresh beginning, a beginning that is filled with positive prospects for all of us. It is frequently said that ‘stronger the foundation, higher the building’.
THE Central Vigilance Commission disposed of 416 cases during October 2009 referred to it for advice. The Commission advised initiations of major penalty proceedings against 113 officers. Of these, 32 were from public sector banks, 27 from M/o Railways, 9 from MCD, 6 each from Central Coalfields Ltd. and Hindustan Copper Ltd., 5 from Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, 4 each from Central Board of Excise & Customs and Damodar Valley Corporation and 3 each from NHAI and Govt of NCT of Delhi. The remaining 14 cases pertained to different departments of the Government of India and PSUs.
Income tax department in the past has stumbled up on many strange things, but nothing as strange as a company exclusively providing bogus stock contract notes to evade taxes, a trail that may lead to it knocking on the doors of many auditors. The Mumbai I-T department estimates that around Rs 1,000 crore of taxes may have been evaded by producing these bogus investment losses, and it now knows the beneficiaries too, a senior department official in the know of things said.
IN Hyderabad Zone during the year 2009, investigations in 66 cases have been completed and in the cases where sufficient evidence has been collected, charge-sheets have been laid in the corresponding jurisdictional courts. These include the Satyam Scam Case, Cases pertaining to the public servants belonging to South Central Railways, Income Tax department, Department of Posts, Railway Protection Force, South Western Railways for demanding & accepting illegal Gratification,
School kids who resent being penalised for being late or for falling asleep in class can take heart. Hopefully, from the next year, even judges of Supreme Court and High Courts will be in serious trouble if they come late to court or cannot resist dozing off during arguments. Indeed, they can face inquiry and risk incurring punishment stretching from censure to removal.
