Big taxpayers yet to take benefits of Sabka Vishwas amnesty scheme

These taxpayers have declared tax dues of around Rs 79,968 crore and after availing the various reliefs and amnesty as per the rules of the scheme, they would pay around Rs 35,094 crore, sources said.

As many as 87.5 per cent of the eligible taxpayers have taken advantage of Sabka Vishwas, a dispute resolution-cum-amnesty scheme, which has been extended till January 15.

However, the large taxpayers who are almost 12.5 per cent of the total eligible taxpayers with total tax amount of Rs 1.7 trillion under litigation has yet to make declaration under this scheme.

According to sources, the government is unlikely to further extend the scheme which went live on September 1, 2019.

The sources said till now, 161,214 taxpayers (87.5 per cent) out of the total 184,000 eligible taxpayers have already availed the scheme.

These taxpayers have declared tax dues of around Rs 79,968 crore and after availing the various reliefs and amnesty as per the rules of the scheme, they would pay around Rs 35,094 crore, sources said.

However, only 23,000 (about 12.5 per cent of the total) eligible taxpayers have not yet applied under the scheme while the vast majority of the smaller taxpayers have already opted for the scheme.

The sources said its officers are pursuing taxpayers to avail this scheme before January 15 as it would not be extend further.

Business Standard

CCD crisis: Business failures should not be taboo, says Nirmala Sitharaman

Parliament approves changes in IBC, providing greater clarity over distribution of proceeds of auction of loan-defaulting companies.

Reacting to the death of Café Coffee Day founder V G Siddhartha, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said business failures should not be a taboo.

Responding to the debate on the amendments to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) in Lok Sabha on Thursday, Sitharaman said, “Business failures in this country should not be a taboo, or looked down upon. On the contrary, we should give an honourable exit or resolution to the problem in letter and spirit of the IBC.”

In the letter, purportedly written by V G Siddhartha, there was mention of harassment by the Income Tax Department. The I-T department has denied the charges.

Telugu Desam Party MP Jayadev Galla said businesses may fail because of economic downturn or business cycle. Galla also said that accountability of banks need to come under scrutiny. “Signing of personal guarantee (by industrialist to take loan) is leading to (them) taking an extreme action like suicide,” he said.

Biju Janata Dal MP Pinaki Misra referred to the death of the coffee tycoon, saying it is unfortunate that the insolvency law “should continuosly continue to grow and expand in our country”. He said it does not bode well for the country because “that is not how you reach the $5-trillion mark”.

On issues concerning Jet Airways, Sitharaman said the stakeholders were free to work out a resolution plan and they were not obliged to use the IBC, which is optional.

Later, Parliament approved changes in IBC, providing greater clarity over distribution of proceeds of auction of loan-defaulting companies.

The amendments give creditors to a loan-defaulting company explicit authority over the distribution of proceeds and fix a timeline of 330 days for resolving cases under IBC, including time taken for litigation.

The amendments, Nirmala said, would also bring in more clarity on various provisions, including time-bound disposal at the application stage for resolution plan and treatment of financial creditors.

Among others, the approved resolution plan would be binding on Central and state governments as well as statutory authorities.

Sitharaman said the proposed amendments also respond to issues of financial creditors in the wake of a recent ruling with respect to financial and operational creditors.

Business Standard

Income Tax dept revises Form 16: Here's all you need to know

The amended form will come into effect from May 12, 2019. This means the income tax returns for financial year 2018-19 will have to be filed on the basis of revised Form 16.

The Income Tax department has revised Form 16 by adding various details, including income from house property and remuneration received from other employers, thereby making it more comprehensive to help check tax avoidance.

The amended form will come into effect from May 12, 2019. This means the income tax returns for financial year 2018-19 will have to be filed on the basis of revised Form 16. Form 16 is a certificate issued by employers, giving details of employees' TDS (tax deducted at source) usually by mid June and is used in filing I-T returns.

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Here's the revised Form 16

form 16, income tax Click on image to see the revised Form 16

The move is aimed at stricter scrutiny of claims made by assessees to check tax avoidance or evasion.

The Income-tax Act, 1961 requires every employer to issue a certificate giving details of salary along with the tax deducted at source (TDS) of each its employee in Form 16.

It will also include segregated information regarding deductions under various tax saving schemes, investments in tax savings instruments, different allowances received by the employee as well as income from other sources.

Among other things, the revised Form 16 will also include details of deductions in respect of interest on deposits in savings account, and rebates and surcharge, wherever applicable.

The I-T department has already notified income tax return forms for fiscal 2018-19. Salaried class and those who do not have to get their accounts audited, will have to file their ITRs by July 31 this year.

Meanwhile, the income tax department has also modified Form 24Q, which is furnished by employer to the tax department. It will include additional details like Permanent Account Number (PAN) of non-institutional entities from whom the employee has taken loan for buying or constructing housing property.

Nangia Advisors (Andersen Global) Director Sanjoli Maheshwari told news agency IANS that the Form 16 and Form 24Q have been amended with an intent to make them more informative. The same has been done in order to bring the Forms in parity with latest changes made in ITR Forms such as disclosure of standard deduction and exemptions claimed under section 10.

"Earlier, where the disclosure of various deductions were mentioned in a consolidated manner, ranging from 80C, 80CCD, 80E, 80G would now be required to be disclosed separately. These specific disclosures would provide ease to the tax authorities in understanding the various components of income of the taxpayer and thereby, facilitating the conduct of scrutiny more precisely," Maheshwari said.