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Provision in scheme lets I-T dept to go after evaders for undisclosed assets acquired well before 6 yrs, but law doesn't allow it An anomaly in the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) -a mechanism to disclose hidden assets and come clean -can trigger litigation and go against the present law. In the course of recent meetings aimed to maximise mobilisation under IDS, senior tax officials have told members of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the apex body, about the problems that could crop up. A provision in the scheme allows the I-T department to go after evaders for undisclosed assets acquired well before six years. Today, tax officers, as per law, refrain from reopening assessment which are more than six years old. “The IDS changes this as it empowers assessing officers to revisit old matters. It is against the Income-tax Act and settled nature of tax assess ment,“ said a tax official in Mumbai. The issue cropped up after the government released the FAQs on the dec...

Opposition parties and the government agreed on Monday, opening day of Parliament's monsoon session, to allocate five hours for a discussion on the goods and services tax (GST) Constitutional amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha. However, the opposition had a caveat — they'd agree to discussion after the government reached out to all parties for a consensus on the issue. A government source said the Rajya Sabha Business Advisory Committee had "in principle" allocated five hours for the discussion but no date. Government sources said more consultation with the Congress and other parties will take place in the coming days, to pass the Bill "unanimously". A Congress leader said the party was still awaiting a "written" offer from the government about the three amendments it wanted in the Bill. A minister groused that the Rajya Sabha committee which examined the legislation and had a majority of Congress members had no dissent note in its report, g...

India will likely sign a bilateral investment treaty ( BIT) within the next few months with the US, Canada or Cambodia. That taxation matters have been kept out of the BIT is not a cause of concern, as the nations with which India is negotiating the agreement have been assured that the provisions under Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement ( DTAA) are adequate to provide protection to foreign companies operating here, governmentsources told Business Standard. BIT, the model draft of which was cleared by the Union Cabinet in December 2015, is expected to eventually replace the existing bilateral investment protection and promotion agreements (BIPPAs) that India has signed with 72 nations. India will also sign BITs with countries it has had no comprehensive investment agreements with before, including the US. BIT keeps taxation out of its ambit with the idea that foreign companies finding themselves in a tax row with the government will not be able to invoke the investment treaty the...

In the first tranche, CBDT to issue letters to those spending Rs.1 crore a year The income- tax department has zeroed in on 900,000 high- value spenders and plans to confront them with the database of their transactions, to persuade them to avail the black money window — Income Disclosure Scheme ( IDS), 2016 — that will close on September 30. In the first tranche, the department will send out letters in 100,000 cases where the money spent is at least Rs. 1 crore each a year. Letters for the remaining cases would be sent in batches. In the second stage, letters would be issued for cases involving spending above Rs. 50 lakh. “A detailed exercise has been carried out and we have prepared a database of 0.9 million ( 900,000) pieces of information (on cases of high- value and potential unreported cases)... This is one area to tackle tax evasion. We will issue them (taxpayers) letters and confront them that we have information,” Central Board of Direct Taxes Chairman Atulesh Jindal...

www.caonline.in News... 1. Refund will be allowed even after surrender of registration certificate of un-utilized cenvat credit for export of goods as there is no express prohibition in terms of Rule-5. (General Commodities Private Limited Versus Commissioner of Central Excise)- 2016 (7) TMI 653- CESTAT BANGLORE. 2. CA Result Final both Group 11.36%, 1st-18.21%, 2nd-18.77%, CPT-38.98%. Congratulations to all passed out students. 3. New online PAN application facility has been launched for PAN applicants with an option of paperless submission of application using Aadhaar based e-sign. 4. Comvat has issued instructions that there is no provision in law to block of Central Statutory Forms on the ground of issuance of notice u/s 59(2) forms on this ground. Even in exceptional cases VATO himself can unblock the issuance without approval from Zonal Incharge. TEAM STBA 5. Last Date of filling of ITR for the A.Y. 2016-17 is 31st July,2016.