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The Aadhaar debate is into its final stages. While the Supreme Court is yet to make it mandatory, the government is flexing its muscles by linking various services to it and forcing citizens to fall in line. The government’s latest salvo comes in the recently-passed Finance Bill -- Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)-backed Aadhaar cards will now be mandatory for filing income tax returns. And if a person does not link his Permanent Account Number or PAN card with Aadhaar, his PAN will be rendered invalid after July 1, 2017. Following this, the Department of Telecom has also made it mandatory to link mobile numbers to Aadhaar. It issued a note saying that all telecom operators will have to ensure that their subscribers link mobile numbers to Aadhaar within a year. If you do not have an Aadhaar number, you will have to submit the enrolment number of your application for Aadhaar. “In case of failure to intimate the Aadhaar number, the PAN allotted to the person shall

The tax department will waive interest liability if the principal demand of capital gains tax is paid by companies like Cairn India and Vodafone plc. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on March 24 issued a circular for waiver of interest in disputed tax demand in different scenarios. In cases where tax liability arose because of retrospective amendment to the law or a court ruling, the interest payable on the demand will be waived, it said. "However, no reduction or waiver of such interest shall be ordered unless the principal demand... stands fully paid or satisfactory arrangements for payment of the principal demand have been made," CBDT guidelines to Chief Commissioner of Income Tax and Director General of Income Tax said. The guidelines came seven weeks after the Direct Tax Dispute Resolution Scheme, announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on February 28 last year, closed. The scheme, which closed on January 31, provided for waiver of interest and penal

To encourage more individuals to file returns and widen the tax net, the government is set to introduce a single-page income tax (I-T) return form from April 1. This will be for those with annual salaried income up to Rs 50 lakh, much higher than Rs 5-lakh limit proposed in the Union Budget, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia told Business Standard. He added this would only be for those with salaried and one house rent income. There are 290 million PAN card holders (the I-T dept identification) but only 60 mn return filers. Currently, the I-T form is three pages. It was simplified two years ago, when a controversial provision for mandatory disclosure of foreign trips and dormant bank accounts was removed. “To expand the tax net, I also plan to have a simple one-page form to be filed as I-T Return for the category of individuals having taxable income up to Rs 5 lakh, other than business income,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced in the 2017-18 Budget. Of the 7.6 mil

The financial year is drawing to a close, and if you are still scurrying about to save on taxes, here is the harsh truth: you have made a classic financial mistake. Tax planning needs to be incidental to financial planning and you need to adopt a proactive approach to both. For now, let’s look at your options. Today, we shall focus on health insurance which qualifies for tax deduction under section 80D. Under section 80D, the premiums paid towards a health insurance policy for self or family can be claimed as a deduction of up to Rs.25,000. If you also pay premiums for your parents who are not senior citizens—less than 60 years of age—then you can claim an additional deduction of Rs.25,000. So the total deduction that you can claim is Rs.50,000, which translates into a tax saving of Rs.15,450. For senior citizens, the deduction limit is Rs.30,000. But if you are buying a health insurance policy for your parents who are senior citizens then you can claim a deduction up to Rs.55,

The groups have been asked to give suggestions on procedural simplifications and possible rate structure With the goods and services tax (GST) set to be rolled out from July 1, the government has set up 10 working groups to address the concerns of industry. The groups cover banking, telecom, exports, information technology, transport, textiles, MSMEs, gems and jewellery and services received and provided by the government. The groups have been asked to give suggestions on procedural simplifications and possible rate structure. The deadline of submitting reports by the groups is April 10. Some of the issues that would be tackled by the groups include how to handle services provided between establishments of the same entity without invoice or payment in certain sectors with high volumes of transactions when operations are spread across the country. The other matter is compliance challenges for small and medium sector in an automated environment, with end-to-end matching of invo

The finance ministry on Friday held a meeting with bankers to discuss ways to use excess liquidity in the system. There was consultation on introduction of standing deposit facility (SDF). While some bankers agreed to it, others sought more time to assess the scheme, sources said. The SDF is a tool used for sucking out surplus liquidity without the need for a collateral in exchange. The demonetisation announced by prime minister Narendra Modi on November 8 has led to a huge surge in deposits, with scrapped notes of Rs 500 and 1,000 being parked with banks. According to various informal estimates, about Rs 14 lakh crore has come back into the banking system. High cash deposits have raised concerns about price rise at a time when the RBI is seeking to check inflation by changing its policy stance to neutral from accommodative. Wholesale inflation soared to a 39-month high of 6.55 per cent in February and retail inflation inched up to 3.65 per cent due to higher food and fue

Hundreds of crores of rupees in the form of taxes ride on the exact categorisation of products Is Parachute hair oil or edible oil? Is KitKat a chocolate or a biscuit? Is a Vicks tablet medicament or confectionery? For the taxpayer and the tax collector, this is much more than an exercise in semantics -hundreds of crores of rupees ride on the exact categorisation. As the government moves closer to rolling out the goods and services tax (GST) on July 1, many such distinctions are being debated so that no ambiguity remains. Not just that, the government is revisiting old tax cases that were lost over product categorisation, according to people with knowledge of the matter, presumably with a view to making sure that revenue collections can be maximised. “In the past, several tax officers had challenged some of the product categorisations, including those in the retail segment, but lost out in court or at appellate level,“ said one of the persons. “Now we have a chance to go ahead wi