The Kolkata Income-Tax Tribunal has held that payment made by an assessee company to accredited advertising agencies could not be termed as payment of commission, and accordingly no TDS is required to be deducted under the provisions of section 194-H of the Income-Tax Act, 1961.
In what could be a major relief to the corporate sector, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has decided not to scrutinize tax returns of more than 1,000 top companies provided no serious disputes are pending against them. The annual returns of tax complying companies would not be scrutinized this year. The decision has been taken by the CBDT to encourage better tax compliance among the corporate,” a senior finance ministry official, who did not wish to be identified, said.
Public, in general, and the NGOs and professionals, in particular, are hereby informed that this facility has been made mandatory w.e.f. 01.08.2008 to facilitate associations to file their applications for prior permission to accept foreign contribution under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 1976, online, on the Ministry of Home Affairs’ website: www.mha.nic. in . This facility of online status enquiry is also available through this website. The above facility aims to provide an efficient, transparent and accountable delivery system, for prompt and responsive service to stakeholders. Further, it will reduce postal and communication delays and shall facilitate online interactions and transactions. This will also substantially curtail paper work and automate work-flow.
Service Tax – Accounting Codes for new services -The Government while imposing new taxes, is not prompt in announcing the Head of accounts under which the tax is to be paid, leaving the tax payers as well as the Department in utter confusion. We have been getting several frantic calls from concerned assessees as to what the codes are for the new taxes imposed in this year’s budget. When we expressed our ignorance, many taxpayers asked us, if you don’t know, who will know? We only report; we don’t create.
(i) no annexures, TDS/ TCS certificates are required to be annexed to the returns of income. Wherever documents are attached with the return, the receiving official is required to detach and return to the tax-payers all such annexures; (ii) ITR-V verification form is in the nature of an acknowledgement, and therefore, the same should be received by giving a Return Receipt Number, as if it were a return. These ITR-V verification forms are to be received in separate counters to be set up for the purpose and these forms should be kept in safe custody
Giving relief to companies engaged in leasing and financing business, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal has ruled that they are not required to pay interest tax, applicable to other credit institutions. Since substantial earnings is made from such (lease financing) activity after employing substantial funds…the assessee would be outside the scope of charging provisions contained in the Act (Interest Tax Act).
Doctors, lawyers and other professionals —both salaried and self-employed— may now have to pay a higher professional tax. Acceding a long-pending demand of the state governments, the Centre has decided to raise the ceiling on professional tax from Rs 2,500 to Rs 7,500 per annum. The Union Cabinet is expected to take up the proposal on Thursday.
In the first instance, 15 bought-leaf tea factories in Nilgiris have applied for energy audit under the energy conservation project launched by Tea Board in co-operation with United Nations Development Programme’s Global Environment Facility and implemented by Technology Informatics Design Endeavour (TIDE).
TAN is a unique identification number, which is allotted to people who are deducting or collecting tax at source on behalf of the income tax department. It has to be quoted in all TDS/ TCS returns. As in the case of permanent account numbers (PAN) that helps to keep track of all assessees and their returns, TAN is used to keep a tab on all tax dedicators and deductions. If all these officers have a TAN, It would be easier to track collections by state governments through TDS.
The Ahmedabad Income-Tax Tribunal has held that where charges are incurred towards MICR facilities regarding identifying, reading and clearing cheques through special kind of machines, the same would be in the nature of fees for technical services (FTS) and would accordingly be liable to deduct tax at source (TDS) under section 194J. In the relevant case, the assessee was engaged in the business of banking activities/services. During verification of the TDS return, the AO observed that the assessee had made payment towards MICR charges to MICR centre managed by State Bank of India without deducting TDS.
