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If you splurged on something really expensive or made an enormous investment recently, rest assured your accounts won’t be opened up for scrutiny by the income tax department as long as these can be squared with your declared income. “Scrutiny will be based on specific information,” a senior income tax official told ET. In other words, big transactions will no longer automatically qualify a person for scrutiny. The income tax department will only start asking questions if it has  clear information that calls for an investigation, sparing honest taxpayers. This was the outcome of a high-level meeting held by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) last week to review the conditions for scrutiny. Such cases are currently picked up through computer-based criteria related to transactions above a certain ceiling. This idea is to ensure that regular taxpayers such as salaried employees don’t face unnecessary hassle and to allow tax authorities to focus their energies on high-risk in...

Tax officials and industry experts will discuss new tax accounting standards for infrastructure companies in July, a person aware of the matter said. The new standards are expected to reduce the discretion these companies use in deciding how and when they recognize revenue from their projects. Officials representing the income-tax department, accounting body the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and outside experts will discuss the norms and subsequently seek comments from public, the person mentioned above said on condition of anonymity. The proposed Income Computation and Disclosure Standards (ICDS) for ‘build, operate and transfer’ (BOT) projects will force many companies to recognize revenue earlier and pay tax earlier as well. Given the rebound in highway development and expected investments in the infrastructure sector, this could result in an immediate boost to tax receipts. However, ICDS will only curtail the flexibility of developers to defer taxes, and no...

The Federation of All India Farmer Associations (FAIFA) on Monday asked the government to haveataxation policy that disincentivises cigarette smuggling in India, ahead of a crucial meeting of the goods and services (GST) Council later this week. The FAIFA,a non-profit organisation representing farmers across states such as Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Gujarat, said cigarette smuggling has hit tobacco farmers supplying to legitimate manufacturers in India.It urged Finance Minister Arun Jaitley “to protect the interests of Indian FCV (FlueCured Virginia) tobacco farmers through balanced and uniform taxation under GST”. “We appeal to the government to haveataxation policy that disincentivises cigarette smuggling in India,” FAIFA General Secretary Murali Babu said in a statement. He further said GST is an opportunity for the government to ensure illicit trade is eradicated from the country by removing distortions and address tobacco taxation in India.It will bring back lo...

The government has asked all companies to disclose shares and bond transactions involving Rs 10 lakh or more in a financial year to Income Tax department by May 31. Besides, a listed company purchasing its own securities for a specified amount from investors will have to furnish the information to the tax department, Corporate Affairs Ministry said in a notice. A company issuing shares, bonds or debentures aggregating to Rs 10 lakh or more in a financial year to any person will have to make the disclosure online regarding such transactions to the Income-Tax department on or before May 31, 2017. "Buy back of shares from any person (other than shares bought in the open market) for an amount or value aggregating to Rs 10 lakh or more in a financial year," will also come under this disclosure. Further, the government is in the process of cancelling the registration of more than two lakh companies that have not been carrying out business for a considerable period of time, amid...

Market regulator sends fresh list of 11,000 persons to tax authorities The fear of abolition of the longterm capital gains (LTCG) tax benefit is back on Dalal Street as another 11,000 cases of penny stock trading abuse have come to light. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) sentafresh list last week of entities that had allegedly misused capital gains provisions to evade Rs 34,000 crore in taxes to the income tax (IT) department. Although the regulator has stepped up vigilance, instances of such abuse are increasing.The government has hinted atapossible revocation of the capital gains benefit for stocks held for more than one year. Sebi shared the data with the tax authorities after investigations revealed 11,000 entities had bought shares of more than Rs 5 lakh each in the last three years in listed companies that might not have any business operation.Sebi has identified these entities using data analytics and trading and surveillance data over the past three years...