Tablighi leader booked to GMAT online exam: The latest on Covid-19 crisis

Kandhalvi had organised the religious gathering at Nizamuddin Markaz last month against the social distancing protocol imposed by the Centre to curb the spread of the deadly disease.

Tablighi Jamaat leader Maulana Saad Kandhalvi has been booked for culpable homicide after some of the attendees of the religious congregation died due to Covid-19, police said on Wednesday.Kandhalvi had organised the religious gathering at Nizamuddin Markaz last month against the social distancing protocol imposed by the Centre to curb the spread of the deadly disease. An FIR was registered against the cleric on March 31 at Crime Branch police station on a complaint of the Station House Officer of Nizamuddin.

Refunds worth Rs 4,250 crore issued in a week: CBDTThe Income Tax department has issued over 1.02 million refunds worth Rs 4,250 crore within a week, the Central Board of Direct Taxes said on Wednesday. The Finance Ministry had last week said it will fast track issuance of pending income tax refunds up to Rs 5 lakh, which will benefit around 1.4 million taxpayers, to provide relief to individuals and businesses hit by Covid-19 outbreak.
GMAT to be conducted online from April 20

The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), accepted as admission criterion by over 2,000 business schools across the globe, will be conducted online from April 20 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Global Management Admission Council, which conducts the test, said the registrations were opened on Tuesday. The test is conducted at over 650 test centres in 114 countries…Read More

400,000 taxpayers to face scrutiny under new e-assessment system

Notices were being served to a little over 100,000 assesses, seeking explanation on the returns filed within 15 days

The income-tax (I-T) department has identified about 400,000 taxpayers who will face scrutiny under the new faceless assessment scheme. Notices were being served to a little over 100,000 assesses, seeking explanation on the returns filed within 15 days, said an official privy to the development. However, about 10,000 such letters were undelivered and, in some cases, bounced back. The deadline of sending scrutiny letters ends on September 30.

The tax department is learnt to have finalised computer-assisted scrutiny selection (CASS) cycle for the current year and has selected about 100 parameters to scrutinise returns under the new system. Sources said some of the parameters, based on which notices were served, included undisclosed foreign income and immovable properties, high-value transactions, misreporting of long-term capital gains, TDS claimed not matching with the tax forms, non-disclosure of investments made in the name of spouse, relatives, filing defective return, tax evasion in earlier years, and so on.

According to the action plan, the e-assessment may not be fully faceless initially, as the jurisdiction assessing officer would be knowing the profile of the assessee and can also view it at the time of serving notices. “For CASS 2019, the notices shall be generated and issued in a centralised manner by the prescribed tax authority, for cases selected for scrutiny. After the issuance of notices, further assessment proceedings shall be conducted by the jurisdictional assessing officer in a regular manner through Income-tax Business Application (ITBA),” according to the assessment module prepared by the I-T department…

Before you file your tax return, note the key changes in Form 16

Part B of Form 16 has been amended seeking more details about the allowances exempt under section 10 such as HRA, LTA, etc and deductions allowed under Chapter VI-A of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

Form 16 is the annual salary TDS certificate issued by an employer to an employee. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has notified amendments in Form 16. The new Form 16 is made effective from 12 May 2019. Employers issuing Form 16 for the financial year 2018-19 will have to issue them in the new format.

Part B of Form 16 has been amended seeking more details about the allowances exempt under section 10 such as HRA, LTA, gratuity etc and deductions allowed under Chapter VI-A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 i.e. section 80 deductions. The important changes are discussed below:

Exemptions under section 10:

Presently, an employer has the option to mention the nature of the allowances exempt under section 10 with the respective amounts. While some employers provided complete disclosure, others aggregated the allowances and disclosed the net amount exempt under section 10. ..(Read More)

Deductions under Chapter VI-A:

Presently, employers have the option to present the details of deductions under section 80C to section 80U of the Act. Similar to the disclosure of exempt allowances, some employers provided complete disclosure of the deductions, and others aggregated the allowances and disclosed the total amount of deductions allowed as a single line item in Form 16..(Read More)

Income Tax return processing time to reduce from 63 days to just 1 day

Under the new system, Infosys will handle end-to-end solution – from e-filing to return assessment to refund processing

Economy News: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved an integrated income-tax e-filing and centralised processing centre (CPC) portal, which will reduce the return processing time from 63 days to just one day. The new portal is also expected to process the refunds within one day of filing of tax returns, in huge relief for taxpayers. However, one will have to wait for 18 months to see its launch.

“Earlier, taxpayers would face troubles because of delay in refund processing and the CBDT used to spend a lot of money every year as interest on pending refunds, which will be history now,” Union minister Piyush Goyal told reporters after the Cabinet meeting here.

Last month, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman Sushil Chandra had said a simplified return form and process would be put in place soon in which the department would process the self-declaration made by the taxpayer. The new Rs 4,241-crore project will incorporate these changes.

Contain By: Business Standard

Demonetisation effect: Advance tax collections up 42%, returns filed up 25%

Returns filed by this date stood at 28.3 mn against 22.7 mn in corresponding period of 2016-17

The effect of demonetisation was clearly seen in the growth of returns and taxes paid by individuals by 5, the extended deadline for filing income tax returns.

The number of returns filed by this date stood at 28.3 million against 22.7 million during the corresponding period 2016-2017, registering an increase of 24.7 per cent. The growth in the same period last year was 9.9 per cent.

The growth in returns filed by individuals is 25.3 per cent with 27.9 million having been received up to August five against 22.3 million in the corresponding period of FY 2016-2017.(economy news)

"This clearly shows that a substantial number of new tax payers have been brought into the tax net subsequent to demonetisation," the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a statement here.

The effect of demonetisation is also clearly visible in the growth in direct tax collections.

Advance tax collections of personal income tax showed a growth of about 41.79 per cent as on August 5 over the corresponding period in FY 2016-2017. Personal income tax under self-assessment tax (SAT) grew at 34.25 per cent over the corresponding period in FY 2016-2017.

"The figures amply demonstrate the positive results of the Government's commitment to fighting the menace of black money. CBDT is committed in its resolve to eradicate tax evasion in a non-intrusive manner and widening of tax base," the statement said.