Friday, July 24, 2009

Income Tax Returns - AY 2009-10

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Section 26A of Customs Act, 1962 – Refund of Import Customs Duty on Defective imported goods

Chapter IV of Finance (No.2) Bill, 2009 has proposed a new section 26A in The Customs Act, 1962. This new amendment proposes to refund the import customs duty on rejected imported goods. Refund of import duty will be allowed if :

a. the imported goods are found to be defective or not in conformity with the specifications and they should not have been reworked or repaired or used after import
b. the defect / wrong specification should be identified to the satisfaction of the Assistant or Deputy Commissioner of Customs
c. the importer should not claim any drawback on this import
d. the goods should be exported back or destroyed in presence of proper officer or abandoned it at customs within 30 days of approval by Assistant or Deputy Commissioner
e. Application for refund should be made within 6 months of the relevant date (ie) the date on which exported or destroyed or abandoned.


This is a welcome provision, as hitherto the importers were losing the customs duty when they received defective materials.

Special Additional Tax - Uttar Pradesh VAT

Uttar Pradesh State Government in order to augment revenue from VAT has issued a Notification No.K.A.NI-2-1169 dated 29.05.2009 directing payment of a new tax “Special Additional Tax” of 0.5% for Schedule 2 items (VAT 4%) and “Special Additional Tax” of 1% for Schedule 5 items (VAT 12.5%). This “Special Additional Tax” SAT is payable from 1.6.2009 and should be shown separately in the invoice as this SAT is eligible for VAT credit.

Governments are caretakers of people and the society and hence they are the best judges to decide on quantum of revenue required, but when they act with a little or no planning is what affects the business community at large. The notification for the new tax was issued on 29.05.2009 which is a Friday to be implemented from 1.6.2009 which is a Monday.

We being honest tax payers will like to follow all regulations to the last word. But a new tax, a separate line item in the invoice, is it possible to change over the weekend? Further this notification was issued and there was no publicity for the same, we have to come to know from our lawyers? What is the necessity to carry out this amendment with just 2 days lead time? Can not the Government plan ahead or can it not give 1 month notice and commence from 1.7.2009.

These short notice changes leave companies scurrying for changes in their software, working methods. These days with network softwares like SAP it is not easy to change it has its own lead time and cost involved.

Tax authorities please take note of these practical difficulties before changing legislations.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Indian Union Budget 2009-10 Significant Changes

1. Personal Income tax rates have gone down by 3% (10% surcharge removed), so tax will be lower by Rs.10,000 per month (GBP 140 per month)

2. Income tax exemption limit increased by Rs.25,000 for senior citizens and by Rs.10,000 for all others

3. Deduction under section 80-DD in respect of maintenance, including medical treatment, of a dependent who is a person with severe disability being raised from the present limit of Rs.75,000 to Rs.1 lakh.

4. No change in corporate tax rates

5. Wealth tax exemption limit increased from Rs.15 lacs to Rs.30 lacs from 1.4.2010

6. Uniform GST (Goods and service tax) will be introduced from 1.4.2010 – so one tax all over India (simplification?)

7. No change in excise or customs duties – so no change in price of products at the moment – some small cosmetic changes (corrections) have been carried out

8. FBT abolished (Fringe Benefit Tax) – but to see from when this has been removed. We have paid advance tax in June – how to get refund?

9. Service tax unchanged – Service tax levied introduced on movement of goods through rail, inland waterways, Legal advice & consultancy (from a firm & not individual practisioners), Cosmetic and Plastic surgeries

10. MAT – Minimum Alternate tax increased from 10% to 15% - there are companies which show profit in the books, but show loss to the taxman – due to various exemptions, these companies are taxed using this MAT. Companies are crying hoarse on this as their tax goes up.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Remittances to Non Residents - Section 195 - Form 15CB & 15CA

Remittances to Non Residents – Section 195

Vide file No.142/19/20007-IPL Ministry of Finance has issued revised procedures for furnishing information regarding remittances being made to non residents.

This revised procedure comes into effect from 1.7.2009, which states as follows :

Form 15CB – the remitter of funds should get a certificate from an auditor in Form 15CB

Form 15CA – is to be filled in and transmitted electronically in website http://www.tin-nsdl.com/

Form 15CA should contain details as contained in Form 15CB

As soon as form 15CA is transmitted, this form 15CA should be printed, this print out will contain an automatically generated acknowledgement number.

Form 15CA should be signed by the authorized signatory and should be submitted in duplicate along with form 15CB to RBI through authorized dealer (bank)

RBI / Authorised dealer will forward one copy to the income tax Assessing Officer

Instructions for filling up form 15CA & form 15CB are available in website http://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/

Format of Form 15CA & Form 15CB are available in website http://www.tin-nsdl.com/

Tax Reforms - GST Rollout

Union Government as part of providing stimulus to the manufacturing sector reduced excise duty from 14.42% to 10.3% and then subsequently to 8.24%. Whether this has the desired effect on the economy with increased demand due to lower prices of manufacturing products is debatable as there was no substantial changes in economic growth. On the other hand lower excise duty has affected revenue of the Central government as lower collections on excise front has increased fiscal deficit for the year. With union budget around the corner on 6th of July there is lot of talk on increasing excise duties again. I do not think this increase in excise duty will affect manufacturing industries as price increase due to increase in excise duty will not have a negative effect on demand and consumption as this will be quite marginal to an effect of 2% to 4%.

The challenge facing manufacturing industry due to these frequent tax changes is changes in their software handling billing, accounting, legal compliance etc. There will be a huge transactional cost on this front and this again will have to be passed on to the consumers.

Last month the UP government introduced a new component in their VAT tax called SAT of 0.5% over and above the VAT rates. This needed immediate change in software of all manufacdturing companies, again added to costs.

Urgent need of today is not tinkering with tax rates but tax reforms in a large scale like immediate implementation of GST so that tax management is simple and cost efficient for corporates and they do not pass on this cost to consumers.

Tax Reforms will bring down costs and not Tax Tinkering.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

New TDS Changes Notification 31/2009

Government of India, Ministry of Finance, issued Notification No.31/2009 dated 25.3.2009 amending provisions of Rules 30, 31, 31A and 31AA of the Income tax Rules, 1962. The salient features of this notification are as follows.

1. Electronic payment of tax is compulsory. Online payment through RBI or SBI or any authorised bank allowed. Debit and Credit card payment also allowed.
2. A new Form 17 has been notified (instead of the earlier form No.281). This form has among other things space for a “UTN” (Unique Transaction number) which is generated automatically for every TDS deduction online. This UTN has to be mentioned in form 16 or 16A to claim deduction
3. TDS certificates should be issued in the new notified form 16 or form 16A (as required). The new notified forms have space for “UTN” and this number is compulsory to be mentioned in form 16 / form 16A
4. A new TDS compliance statement in 24C should be filed quarterly, 15th July, 15th October, 15th January and 15th June for the quarter ending March 31st.
5. Statements in form 24Q (Salary), 27Q (Foreigners), 27Q (all other TDS) should hereinafter filed annually on or before 15th July following the financial year

Effective Date of this notification was earlier set at 1.4.2009 which was postponed to 1.7.2009. However Press Release dated 30.06.2009 has postponed indefinitely operation of this notification.