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www.caonline.in News... 1. Deviation from stock valuation method prescribed in Section 145A cannot lead to addition if exclusive method followed [DCIT vs. M/s Stone India Limited (ITAT Kolkata)]. 2. Mobiisation / demobiisation charges cannot be treated as Royalty [Technip Singapore Pte Ltd. Vs. DIT & ANR (Delhi High Court)]. 3.Speedy disbursal of pending refund claims of exporters of services under rule 5 of CENVAT Credit Rule, 2004 [Circular No. 195/05/2016- Service Tax]. 4. Non Resident Indians (NRIs) can now join and subscribe to NPS online through eNPS [Press Information Bureau Government of India Ministry of Finance 17-June-2016]. 5. Registration u/s 12AA cannot be denied on town Planning Activities continuing from earlier years [ITO vs. Moradabad Development Authority (ITAT Delhi)].

CBDT to broaden NMS for a more robust database Tax authorities will use 360 degree profiling and match the database of people filing returns with information about high value transactions to unearth concealed income. The Central Board of Direct Taxes has received one crore information through the Non-Filers Management System (NMS), more than 50 lakh tax payers were added and about Rs. 7,000 crore taxes were collected, CBDT Chairman Atulesh Jindal said. “We have a very robust nonfilers management system, under which we are matching the information which is being received from various sources,“ Jindal said . At the end of the two-day annual conference of tax administrators, Jindal said this year the CBDT has further expanded the areas on which information is being received. “Our emphasis will be to broaden this NMS so that we have more robust data base, on the basis of which we have more widening of tax base,“ he said, adding that the department would use non-intrusive method for...

Apex direct taxes body exempts investments in startups from Section 56(2) of I-T Act The government has removed the so-called `angel tax' for investors providing funding to startups under its ambitious plan to boost entrepreneurship and job creation in the country . Funding to startups, notified under the government-approved plan announced by PM Narendra Modi in January , will not face tax even if it exceeds the face value. Resident angel investors, domestic family offices or domestic funds which were not registered as ven ture capital funds can now heave a sigh of relief and not worry about the invested amount getting taxed.Under existing rules, funds raised by an unlisted company through equity issuance are covered under this tax to the extent the amount is in excess of the fair market value. Such extra inflow is taxable as “income from other sources“ under Section 56(2) of the Income-Tax Act and charged the corporate tax rate, resulting in an effective tax of over 30%. T...

The income tax (I-T) department has decided to hold extensive publicity campaigns on the Black Money Disclosure Scheme launched on June 1. Also, to widen the tax base and devise ways to check the issue of undisclosed money, it was decided at the two-day Rajasva Gyan Sangam, a retreat for the tax administrators that concluded on Friday. Tax departments will work to improve payer services, increasing the tax base, checking evasion, reducing litigation and digitising processes, said revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia. “We had an entire session on strategies to tackle the menace of black money in the system. The ideas or the strategy that emerged cannot be revealed,” he added. A website will be opened to monitor the efforts by officers to increase the popularity of the Income Declaration Scheme and the Direct Tax Dispute Resolution Scheme. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his inaugural address on Thursday had outlined a five-point charter for tax administrators — RAPID, which stands ...

A typical property dispute: After buying an old bungalow or asecond- hand property, the buyer ends up in court because aclose relative of the seller claims to be a partial owner. Property ownership disputes, especially among Hindu Undivided Families, are common. But, it is not restricted to HUFs. Many developers in the past faced problems because they sold one flat to several individuals. To provide relief to such buyers, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India ( Irdai) has set up a committee to launch title insurance. Popular in the US and Europe, the policy protects an owner’s or lender’s financial interest in property against loss because of title defects and other matters. “ It defends against alawsuit contesting the title, or reimburses the policyholder for the monetary loss incurred, up to the amount of insurance provided by the policy,” says an official of a general insurance company. The official says this will be a product essentially for the retail ind...

E-commerce companies are likely to approach the government to seek relief from some of the proposals contained in the draft Goods and Services Tax (GST) law. According to sources, major e-commerce players plan to approach the government via sectoral bodies such as the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) to discuss the various pain points. Sources said IAMAI has asked its various members, including major e-commerce players such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and Paytm, to give a list of the various issues they have with the draft. After collating these, the plan is to approach the government next week. A Flipkart spokesperson said on Wednesday that a specific proposal in the draft law relating to tax collection at source would be detrimental to lakhs of small and medium sellers who do business on e-commerce platforms. "This clause, not applicable to offline sellers, will hurt the working capital requirement for these sellers, as they work on small margins to provide affordabl...

Retirement fund body EPFO said on Friday that it has updated over 170 million member accounts, crediting interest rate of 8.8% for the year 2015-16. Hindustan Times New Delhi,18th June 2016

To ease the process for forming new finance companies, the Reserve Bank reduced the number of documents required for registration from the existing 45 documents to eight. This has been done to make the process of registration of new non- banking financial companies (NBFCs) " smoother and hasslefree", it said. Also, there would be two types of applications for nondeposit taking NBFCs, based on sources of funds and customer interface. Applications from those not having access to public funds would be fast- tracked. These companies will be prohibited from accessing public funds and having customer interface. If they intend to later do either, thed need RBI approval. RBI may also call for any further documents to satisfy itself on the eligibility of a company seeking registration as an NBFC. If it does, the applicant must respond within a month. Business Standard New Delhi,18th June 2016

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has proposed further relaxations to the real estate investment trusts ( Reits) regulations, to attract real estate developers towards launching these instruments. Sebi also proposed a framework to help offshore fund managers relocate to India. The decisions were taken at its board meeting on Friday. The board approved removing restriction on the Special Purpose Vehicle ( SPV) to invest in other SPVs holding assets. It also allowed a Reit to invest up to 20 per cent in under- construction projects. Earlier, a Reit could invest only up to 10 per cent in an under- construction project. It also eased the criteria for related- party transactions and allowed Reits to have more sponsors. “Increasing the limit of investment in under- construction assets allows more flexibility to select projects and reduces the time and transaction costs,” said Maadhav Poddar, tax partner, real estate practice, EY. Reits are investment vehicles that...