The income tax (I-T) department on Tuesday extended the deadline for filing settlement applications for eligible taxpayers till September 30, as the income tax settlement commission (ITSC) ceased to exist from February 1. This comes amid interim relief provided by some high courts, directing acceptance of applications of settlement even after February 1. To dispose the pending settlement applications as on January 31, the central government has constituted Interim Board for Settlement.
For starters, the application to the commission will have to be made together with the payment of the tax liability. The application can be made only before the assessment officer has completed proceedings, and not after.
Seasoned bureaucrat and a stickler for rules Finance Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey will be at the helm of capital market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), for three years. The 1987-batch Odisha-cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, Pandey, would replace Madhabi Puri Buch, whose three-year term ends on Friday.
Cabinet likely to pave way for the 'super-rich' tax today.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said as many as 37,506 tax dispute cases were pending before various Income Tax Appellate Tribunals having a financial implication of Rs 1.45 lakh crore at end March 2015.
The Budget proposed abolishing the under-performing, authority of advance ruling, to replace it with a two-member board of advance ruling.
The case based on "random materials" like loose sheets, papers, e-mail print outs is "merit less" as they are "inadmissible materials" having "no evidentiary value under the law, the court said.
If you think that revenue officials are going berserk, acting on their own, while the government chants the mantra of 'ease of doing business', you would be wrong. These moves appear to have full official backing, points out Debashis Basu.
Vodafone, according to sources, in its response to the Finance Ministry's offer for conciliation, had expressed keenness to settle the long-pending capital gains tax dispute.
A robust dispute settlement system would help the government unlock tax revenues, and also aid ease of doing business.
The move follows poor results in detecting undisclosed foreign assets and delay in concluding pending matters under the Black Money Act, which came into effect in 2015. According to the official data, only 52 cases have been identified so far. Of these, nine are from Mumbai alone.
Government will provide a short window of a "few months" to income tax assesses to come clean by declaring their money and assets stashed abroad.
While the responses of the candidates were predictable, depending on which side they belonged to, an interesting point slipped through when Rahul Shewale cited the Dharavi Redevelopment Project as a scheme that would add to Mumbai's importance. No big infrastructural project in Mumbai, he said, could be successful without the Centre's nod.
Govt to introduce comprehensive law on black money
Economic stagnation is the advance payment for polarisation, which extracts a terrible price.
The Bill could be referred to the Parliamentary Committee for scrutiny
Vodafone's long-pending tax dispute with the government might be heading for a resolution, with the finance ministry considering changing the Income-Tax Act's retrospective amendment and taxing indirect transfer of assets prospectively from 2012, the year the law was clarified.
To check black money menace, the Cabinet on Tuesday approved a new bill that would give more powers to the tax department in tracking illicit wealth stashed abroad and provide for strict penal actions for such offence.
Internet search-engine giant Google has agreed to give its closest rival Yahoo 2.7 million shares of its stock to settle patent infringement and other legal claims, the companies announced on Tuesday.
Amid long-pending dispute between the UK-based telecom giant Vodafone and the tax authorities in India, Finance Minister's advisor Parthasarathi Shome on Wednesday said the government should not use retrospective amendment of tax laws to raise revenues.
Faced with over Rs 11,200 crore (Rs 112 billion) tax liability, Vodafone India chief Analjit Singh on Thursday met Finance Minister P Chidambaram for the second time this week and expressed the hope that there will be clarity soon on the proposal to settle the dispute through conciliation.
Experts say only three per cent individuals pay taxes.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram has asked UK-based Vodafone Group, which is facing a tax liability of over Rs 11,200 crore in India, to give its view on the long-pending matter in writing, a senior official said.
The Income Tax department has declined to share details of probe being carried out in Rs 5,600 crore (Rs 56 billion) payment default by National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL) saying it would "hamper the process of investigation or apprehension of offenders".
H-1B workers have minimal skills, says Infosys whistleblower
In the first of a three-part series Paranjoy Guha Thakurta details the salient features of the Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets (Imposition of Tax) Act, 2015.
The government on Tuesday said it is keeping a close watch on the developments in the crisis-ridden NSEL and will take action once reports of the two committees looking into the problems of the exchange are received.
Filing with inadequate disclosure of assets will be liable for prosecution
NSEL, promoted by Jignesh Shah-led Financial Technologies (India) Ltd, is facing the problem of settling Rs 5,500 crore.
Parekh says drafting new I-T law is hindered by the lack of experience.
Has the Modi government been more at odds with institutions than other governments? There is no doubt that there have been more run-ins. While the RBI and CBI cases have drawn attention, there have been others, less publicised, Subhomoy Bhattacharjee points out.
Innovative methods like transfer of funds through the RTGS banking system and concealment of currency wads inside car bonnets were detected by Election Commission as it took steps to curb the use of black money during the just-concluded Lok Sabha polls.
Eleven years on, while 80% of scam-hit investors have been fully compensated, more than 50% of the sum is yet to be distributed.
I-T dept investigating black money angle; FM hints against bailout for bourse's investors.
Arun Jaitley had a tough fiscal hill to climb.
Shikha Verma explains how child insurance plans can help you achieve your child's financial dreams.
Indian economy about to take-off
Aadhaar-related schemes and the Aadhaar Act exist on the assumption that Right to Privacy is not a Fundamental Right.