Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget for 2023-24 in Parliament on February 1. The Budget is a statement of the government's estimated receipts and expenditures for a fiscal year (April 1 to March 31). It's divided into Revenue and Capital Budget. The Revenue Budget includes the government's revenue receipts and expenditures while the Capital Budget includes its capital receipts and payments.
The proposed move to withdraw the DDT would help encourage investments by addressing multiple taxation of income and bringing down the effective tax rate on companies, which is among the highest in the world.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Sebi would develop new products in the commodity derivatives space apart from taking steps to deepen the corporate bond market.
The regulator has sought an increase in the investment limit for tax-saving equity mutual fund schemes to Rs 200,000 from the current Rs 150,000.
What many don't realise is that including their spouse and children in their tax planning can enable them to reduce their tax burden legally.
India's flexible (flex) office segment, having breached pre-pandemic levels, is thriving as corporates, startups, multinational corporations, and global capability centres (GCCs) expand in India, seeking low-capital yet Grade A plug-and-play facilities. In the first quarter (Q1) of 2025, the flex office segment continued to grow, with flex space leasing rising by 22 per cent to 2.2 million square feet (msf), according to Colliers.
The suggestion is made by BSE in a letter to the Finance Minister.
India's collection from tax on personal and corporate income jumped over 48 per cent in the current fiscal after a 41 per cent surge in advance tax payments, mirroring sustained economic recovery in a year that witnessed two waves of coronavirus infections. Net collections of direct taxes until March 16, 2022, in the fiscal year that started on April 1, 2021, stood at Rs 13.63 lakh crore compared to Rs 9.18 lakh crore in the same period a year back, an official statement said. The net collections in direct taxes, which is made up of income tax on individual income, corporation tax on profits of companies, property tax, inheritance tax and gift tax, in the current fiscal is 35 per cent higher than the collection of Rs 9.56 lakh crore in the pre-pandemic year of 2019-20 (April 2019 to March 2020).
Gold prices tumbled by Rs 3,350 to Rs 72,300 per 10 grams in the local market in New Delhi on Tuesday amid subdued demand by jewellers after the government announced the customs duty cut on the yellow metal and silver to 6 per cent.
rediffGURU T S Khurana answers readers' personal income tax queries.
Investors can sell a part of the stocks, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and other securities held in their portfolios at a loss and use this loss to offset tax on the capital gains made on the sale of other securities.
'The finance minister missed yet another opportunity to simplify the income tax structure in the Budget.' 'This was an opportune moment to get rid of the old tax system entirely and move fully to the new system,' asserts M Govinda Rao, member of the 14th Finance Commission.
With the government clearing the decks for direct listing at the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) International Financial Services Centre (IFSC), issuers will wait for the ecosystem to develop further before firming up their listing plans. In the meantime, most companies may continue to prefer listing in the onshore market, even as the new avenue provides key benefits such as tax waivers and reduced foreign exchange risk. Sources said that a few key things need to be ironed out further.
Sentiments may get impacted as mutual funds have been gaining traction among investors as route to invest in stock markets
rediffGURU Samkit Maniar answers readers' personal income tax queries.
Brokers od bothe the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange on Tuesday demanded a single transaction tax on securities for only foreign institutional investors and non-resident Indians and asked Finance Minister P Chidambaram
Markets regulator Sebi has notified a stricter regulatory framework for small and medium enterprise (SME) IPOs by introducing a profitability requirement and capping a 20 per cent limit on offer-for-sale (OFS). The reforms aim to provide SMEs with a sound track record an opportunity to raise funds from the public while protecting investor interests. This move follows a rise in SME issues, which has driven significant investor participation.
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Milind Vadjikar your insurance, stocks, mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
'Arbitrage funds make the most sense for those in the 30 per cent tax bracket, are viable for those in the 20 per cent bracket, but less so for those in the 10 per cent bracket.'
Investors want lower securities tax, tax breaks on equity investments.
Instruments such as Reits, InvITs, unsponsored GDR, GIFT find few takers.
Investors expect the govt to abolish tax on delivery-based transactions in the cash segment.
In a relief for foreign firms giving loans to Indian subsidiaries, tax authorities have said goods and services tax (GST) will not be imposed on them, subject to some caveats. Additional fees, commissions, or related payments - over and above the amount charged as interest - on these loans will attract GST at 18 per cent, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has said.
Few finance ministers announce any taxation measure that could upset the stock market. Ms Sitharaman decided to take that risk, observes A K Bhattacharya.
The government has exempted units of investment trusts and ETFs issued by entities based in GIFT City or traded in exchanges there from capital gains tax. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) notified the exemption from capital gains tax any unit of investment trust; a unit of a scheme; and a unit of an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) launched under the International Financial Services Centres Authority (Fund Management) Regulations, 2022. Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT)-IFSC is being promoted as a tax-neutral enclave for the financial sector.
The regulations will only apply to the share purchases that have been done after October 1, 2004
Finance ministry lines up major plans to be implemented within three months.
It is possible that this experiment might see a rise in the Union government's cost incurred on tax concessions, without any increase in the tax base or coverage, says A K Bhattacharya.
'For me, if I want to buy a house to stay, I don't care about indexation because I don't want to sell that house.' 'The only thing that matters to me as a buyer is that the home price should be within my reach.' 'Any market, when speculators and investors go out, it will benefit the middle class.'
Amid slowing economy, the gross direct tax collection has risen only by 13.18 per cent to Rs 3.68 lakh crore during the April-November period of 2013-14 fiscal.
It's not just the archaic tax laws but the anomalies that make the taxpayer's life difficult.
Payment in cash for buying goods and services worth more than Rs 2 lakh with the exception of jewellery will attract 1 per cent tax collected at source (TCS) from Wednesday.
Sources said much has been done to ease the tax burden of the middle classes in the last five years, and that such a measure affects only a limited segment of people when the focus should be to put money in rural areas. Archis Mohan reports.
First Rajya Sabha approved the Rs 45 lakh-crore spending proposed in the Budget, followed by the nod to the Finance Bill that contains tax proposals.
From July 1, retail investors can offer stocks through exchanges for de-listing, buyback and open offers
rediffGURU T S Khurana answers readers' personal income tax queries.
Besides higher tax outgo, P-note issuers are worried about operational difficulties
DDT is levied on dividends that a company pays its shareholders out of its profits. It is currently charged at the rate of 20.55 per cent, including a surcharge and education cess. Government may instead tax the shareholders receiving dividends, in a bid to help improve investor sentiment by addressing the multiplicity of taxes and bring down the effective tax rates for companies.
While the declarations under the scheme have to be filed by December 31, 2020, the government had in October extended the deadline for making payment by three months till March 31, 2021, in view of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Members of the Securities and Exchange Board of India have suggested a phased reduction of the securities transaction tax, as part of a package of measures to develop the capital markets that was discussed with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee last week.
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