CA Online

India has notified the revised double tax avoidance agreement with South Korea under which capital gains tax will be levied at the source with effect from April 1, 2017. The changes are in line with the amendment to the India-Mauritius double taxation avoidance convention. The existing DTAA between India and Korea has been in effect for three decades and provides for residencebased taxation of capital gains on shares, which means taxes were to be paid where the investor was a resident. “The revised DTAA aims to avoid the burden of double taxation for taxpayers of two countries in order to promote and stimulate flow of investment, technology and services between India and Korea,“ a CBDT statement said. It provides for exchange of information. E conomic Times New Delhi,27th October 2016

To draw the right lessons from the largest ever leak of debit and credit card data from several Indian banks that happened last week, the Aadhaar authorities feel it is time to integrate the same with bank account numbers. Ajay Bhushan Pandey, director-general of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), says the Aadhaar authentication protocol can be overlaid on the card systems. Talking with Business Standard , he said it would mean every time a person swipes her debit card on relatively insecure points such as automated teller machines (ATMs), she will be prompted to provide the Aadhaar number along with her PIN provided by the bank. The two will act as double verification for her. Pandey said he would discuss this option with the finance ministry. The ministry will have to engage in talks with the National Payments Corporation of India and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), subsequently. Right now, while banks do insist on Aadhaar number for opening of savings accounts,

Around 7.8 million new assessees started filing income tax returns between assessment years 2012-13 and 2014-15, pushing up the total number of filers to 39.13 million. According to the Income Tax Return Statistics released by the Central Board of Direct Taxes, 31.2 million assessees filed returns in the assessment year 2012-13, which rose to 36 million in 2013-14 and 39.13 million the following year. Most of these were individuals but there were also Hindu Undivided Family entities, firms, associations of persons, companies, limited liability partnerships, trusts, etc. There were 7.5 million more individual filers in 2014-15 than two years ago. As many as 28.9 million individuals filed I-T returns during AY 2012-13, which went up to 33.5 million in AY 2013-14 and further to 36.5 million in AY 2014-15. Of the 36.5 million individuals who filed returns in AY 2014-15, 19.5 million individuals have shown nil salary income. The remaining 17 million individuals showed cumulative sal

The Income Tax(I-T) Department has unearthed cases of tax evasion worth about Rs.38,000 crore involving around 1,000 entities,and has issued notices to 147 individuals, a senior official of the I-T department said. The amount has been arrived at through investigation of cases of stock manipulation in the past two years,the official added. Most of the individual shail from Mumbai,Kolkata, Ahmedabad,Surat,and Delhi,officialssaid.These cities account for most of the trading volumes in the cash segment of the stock market. Prosecution against these entities,who face penalty at the rate of 200 percent on the evaded tax,will start soon, said the official.However,some of the entities involved had declared unaccounted wealth in the central government’s recently concluded Income Declaration Scheme and will get immunity as a result. To evade tax,some entities claimed long-term capital gains by showing a fake back-dated purchase of shares at lower prices,explained at a tax officer. Bu