In a major relief to over 3,000 companies all over India seeking arbitration in tax cases with the Settlement Commission, the Bombay High Court has termed as "unconstitutional" the government's decision to suggest a cut off date of March 31, 2008, for all cases filed before June 1,2007.
The Budget 2025-26 meets the expectations of fiscal consolidation, maintaining capital expenditure, and boosting consumption through tax cuts.
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.
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.
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.
The Finance Bill, 2007, has proposed tougher measures against tax evasion by tightening penalty provisions.
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.
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.
A robust dispute settlement system would help the government unlock tax revenues, and also aid ease of doing business.
Govt to introduce comprehensive law on black money
As corporate India gears up to be GST-ready, the ongoing litigation and tax dispute cases are something most businesses are cagey about.
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.
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.
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.
Move comes after agencies unearth several cases of misuse of the 80:20 scheme.
The Bill could be referred to the Parliamentary Committee for scrutiny
The larger amount of black money either goes into domestic real estate or bullion, or is round-tripped back into India anyway.
Jaitley also dismissed criticism that lower taxes were aimed at helping corporates.
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Enforcement agencies will be empowered to confiscate assets
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Cabinet likely to pave way for the 'super-rich' tax today.
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.
Filing with inadequate disclosure of assets will be liable for prosecution
The SIT on black money has widened its probe.
It's time for Indian generic companies to rethink their strategies.
Finance minister tries to put house in order before reforms are unveiled in February.
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.
Experts say only three per cent individuals pay taxes.
Indian economy about to take-off
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