Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is keen to introduce a fair tax regime.
Terming a search and seizure operation conducted by the Income Tax department as a 'serious invasion of the privacy and freedom of the citizen,' the Delhi high court has said that such exercises cannot be a 'roving or fishing exercise' by the department.
Budget has made provisions for increase in the discretionary powers of the taxmen. It remains to be seen whether this move will affect the taxpayers or help them better.
The minister emphasised that use of modern technology can yield far better results as far as tax collections are concerned than any other way.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday asked tax collectors to become technology-savvy and develop an effective intelligence system to prevent evasion and punish wrong-doers.
Alleging that the Centre is abusing the Central agencies to pressure the tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said the ruling dispensation and every individual associated will slug it out without any fear.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes convened a meeting of all cadre-controlling chief commissioners of income tax in Delhi on Thursday to discuss strategies for achieving the revenue collection target budgeted at Rs 3,70,000 crore (Rs.3.7 trillion) and internally reset at Rs 4,00,000 crore (Rs 4 trillion).
Income tax officials on Monday conducted surveys at offices of engineering major Larsen & Toubro and media firm Zee Group for alleged GST evasion, an official of the tax department said. When contacted, L&T neither confirmed nor denied the development, while the media group has confirmed the tax survey. The tax official said surveys have been carried out at many L&T premises in the city, and in case of Zee, the surveys are underway at all its offices across the country since morning.
The income tax department on Monday launched a new portal e-filing 2.0, which will make online filing of returns and tax payment easier. The new portal -- www.incometax.gov.in -- replaces the 'http://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in' site, and can be accessed by taxpayers in various regional languages. The income tax department also asked taxpayers to re-register their DSC (Digital Signature Certificate), update personal mobile number and email ID under 'primary contact', act on 'pending action', if any, and respond to 'outstanding demand'.
The airline has paid the TDS but mostly after the scheduled date.
Vellore is one of the two seats that the DMK alliance won by the narrowest of margins in 2019. For the DMK's vote-score to be so low in a constituency with a substantial Muslim population has not missed the BJP strategists' eyes, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Undisclosed income has been detected in respect of 10 assessee groups which included those linked to AIADMK leader V K Sasikala.
After Finance Minister Arun Jaitley moved the amended Finance Bill for consideration by the Lok Sabha, Deepender Hooda (Congress) said this was a "historic" occasion as never in the past had the Rajya Sabha amended the Finance Bill.
The finance ministry has set up two committees of state finance ministers which would rework rate slabs, review GST exempt items and identify potential evasion sources. Four years after the roll out of the national Goods and Services Tax (GST), which replaced the complex indirect tax structure, the centre and states have started work on moving towards a "simpler rate structure in GST" by reviewing the current rate slabs, including special rates and merger of rate slabs. The Group of Ministers (GoM) on rate rationalisation would also review items under inverted duty structure to help minimise refund payout, and review the supply of goods and services exempt under GST with an objective to expand the tax base and eliminate breaking of input tax credit (ITC) chain.
Besides selling movable and immovable assets to make recoveries, taxmen filed prosecution cases against those not paying the demand.
Aaditya, son of Shiv Sena president and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, dubbed the searches by the I-T department on Kanal as 'invasion by Delhi' ahead of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections.
Mukherjee said about Rs 2.42 lakh crore (Rs 2.42 trillion) in taxes is locked up in litigation before the CIT appeal, ITAT and high courts.
The Income Tax department has trained its scanner on the burgeoning 'e-commerce' business in the country.
PricewaterhouseCoopers, an advisory and consulting firm whose sister company audited the accounts of Hyderabad-based Satyam Computer Services, has a chequered past with Indian tax authorities, having admitted its "mistake" in at least two cases of tax evasion.
A notice put up at the Bandra-Kurla Complex office of the income-tax department says that salaried individuals filing their returns for assessment year 2008--09 (i.e. the last financial year, 2007--08) need to attach annexures.
Finance Ministry has asked excise and service tax officials to exercise caution while summoning CEOs and top functionaries of large firms or PSUs for probing any revenue cases.
"I have been in this business (banking) for two decades. While doing business nothing wrong has been done. However, irregularities may happen. If irregularities have happened, there is punishment for it. I am ready to face punishment," state Cooperatives Minister Subhash Deshmukh said.
The Income Tax department should be 'friendly and courteous' towards the tax-payers while recovering levies, Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Friday.
Some companies are charged with undervaluing their assets.
The income-tax (I-T) department is working on integrating the new e-filing portal with stock exchanges to help tax authorities track trade transactions, including futures and options. The integrated system will look at discrepancies between the data disclosed by an assessee and match it with data fetched from stock exchanges, using artificial intelligence, said two officials in the know. This will help detect and red-flag such matters, particularly those related to non-filers of income-tax return (ITR).
The government's direct tax collection of Rs 3,12,000 crore (Rs 3.12 trillion) as of March 17 includes Rs 18,000 crore (Rs 180 billion) recovered by taxmen from regular tax payers and corporate assesses who were trying to understate their liabilities.
A look at what constitutes as Income on Indian soil and what is not from the viewpoint of the income tax department.
This was informed recently by the government to a Parliamentary panel, examining the amendments to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, officials said.
Taxmen have come across instances where global firms - charged a withholding tax of 6 per cent - are underreporting the exact income they earned from an Indian user.
Ahead of the second instalment of advance tax, the revenue department is scrutinising entities that have registered negative growth in their tax deducted at source (TDS) payments, even when they reported healthy advance tax payments. According to sources, taxmen have observed a mismatch in TDS payments from at least 60-65 small to mid-sized companies. Officials said it is unusual for TDS to not increase, given the improved turnover and profits - if higher advance tax payments are any indication.
A Mumbai court has issued a letter of request to a Swiss court to allow income tax authorities to probe accounts of stud-farm owner Hasan Ali, who is alleged to have deposited billions of dollars there.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram has directed Income-Tax officials to monitor advance tax mop-up, tax deducted at source, and hasten the recovery of tax arrears to attain direct tax target of Rs 1,39,510 crore (Rs 1395.1 billion) in 2004-05.
'The promises of netas and babus and new laws, however well-meaning, mean little.' 'What matters is implementation on the ground.' 'Every law is finally implemented by a vast army of offici
