CA Online

Many expatriates living in India and non-resident Indians living in any other country may  just end up in tax trouble with no fault of theirs. They all are set to miss the July 31  deadline for filing income-tax returns due to snags in the e-filing system.  Several expats are unable to file tax returns because the e-filing system would not accept  it without an Aadhaar card link.  This despite the government, through a recent notification, clarified that foreign citizens  are not required to obtain Aadhaar card for tax filing purpose. “In several cases, the  income tax e-filing system is not allowing expatriates to upload their returns without  Aadhaar as they have been tagged as Indian citizens in the income tax database,” said Amit  Maheshwari, partner at Ashok Maheshwary & Associates LLP that is helping several expats deal  with the problem. “This anomaly seems to have its origin at the time of allotment of PAN,”  he said. That is not the only problem.  “In several cas

Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal said the passage of this Bill will help increase the size of the country’s economy and investor protection and corporate governance were the two main objectives of the measure The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed a Bill to amend the companies law seeking to strengthen corporate governance standards, initiate strict action against defaulting companies and help improve the ease of doing business in the country. Piloting the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2016, Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal also said that NSEL and PACL scams were a legacy of the previous regime, which the current government is trying to address. The Bill, which was passed by a voice vote, provides for more than 40 amendments to the Companies Act, 2013, which was passed during the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime. The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha in March 2016, and then referred to the Standing Committee on F

Central bank has extended the rest period of statutory auditors to at least 6 years The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday criticised private and foreign banks for  appointing the same set of auditors alternatively after mandatory rest of two years, as such  practice establishes a “comfortable relationship that may lead to compromise in strict  adherence to audit principles. As per the extant rules, a statutory auditor has to be appointed for a period of four years  and then there should be a rest of two years. Now the central bank extended the rest period  to at least six years. According to RBI, in some cases in private and foreign banks, the same audit firm was  reappointed after a gap of two years’ rest. In a few other banks, the immediately preceding  statutory auditor firm was appointed on completion of the four-year tenure of the current  statutory auditor. “The statutory central audit responsibility in such banks thus remained confined to two  audit firms which

Foreign investors cannot buy further shares in non-banking finance company Capital First as  foreign institutional investors/foreign portfolio investors (FIIs/FPIs) have crossed the  maximum permissible investment limit, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said. Foreign shareholding through FIIs/FPIs in Capital First has crossed the limit of 24 per cent  of its paid-up capital, the RBI said in a notification. “Therefore, no further purchase of shares of this company would be allowed through stock  exchanges in India on behalf of FIIs/FPIs,” the RBI said. As on June 30, 2017, foreign portfolio investors held a total of 25.69 per cent in the  company, according to data on the BSE. FIIs, NRIs (non-resident Indians) and PIOs (persons of Indian origins) can invest in primary  and secondary capital markets in India through portfolio investment scheme (PIS). The RBI monitors ceilings on FII/NRI/PIO investments in Indian companies on a daily basis.  It has fixed the cut-off poi

Over 25% of trucks idle amid drop in interstate movement of untaxed and under-reported cargo, leading to a fall in retail freight charges; transporters postponing truck purchases as there's no tax clarity on sale of second-hand vehicles More than a fourth of India's 6 million-strong truck pool is said to be idle after the goods and services tax (GST) came into force on July 1 amid a drop in interstate movement of untaxed and underreported cargo, leading to a fall in retail freight charges. That's having a knock-on effect on the transport and truck-making businesses, at least in the short term, experts said. Interstate retail freight rates are down 40-50%, the sharpest decline in over three decades, said SP Singh, senior fellow at the Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training (IFTRT). Such steep declines in freight rates were seen in 1984, 1988, 2008 and just after the 2016 demonetisation, say transporters. To be sure, transport operators are reporting log

Log into your e-filing account to check if you have any outstanding demand or refund If you receive an email claiming to be from the income tax (I-T) department that there’s an outstanding tax demand that you need to pay immediately, don’t get alarmed.  Get cautious. In all probability, that email is from cyber criminals, trying to trick you into revealing your bank account details. Experts say there has been an exponential rise in such emails in the past month. “Cyber criminals are sending these emails in July as it’s the time when most people  file returns and tax is on their minds,” says Amarpal Chadha, tax partner and India mobility leader, EY. He says his clients have also received emails stating there is  a refund pending with the I-T department and the recipient can claim it instantly. These emails provide a link the receiver needs to click to pay the outstanding tax demand or get the refund. Once an individual clicks on it, he is redirected to a web  page that looks

If industry experts are to be believed, the recently implemented goods and services tax (GST) regime might have inadvertently openedachannel for gold importers to  launder money out of the country. Many bullion importers, it is learnt, have been exploiting the zeroduty facility under India´s free trade agreements (FTAs) with several countries for this purpose. According to an industry veteran who did not wish to be named, "under two treaties that India has signed with other countries -FTA and Comprehensive Economic  Partnership (CEP) -gold can now be imported without paying the 10 per cent customs duty, as the 12.5 per cent countervailing duty has been subsumed in the goods and  services tax (GST), which is 3 per cent for gold". These importers prefer gold coins as they offeragreater scope for overinvoicing than gold bars. And, through overinvoicing, they are able to illegally send extra dollars out of the country. Since the rollout of GST on July 1, it is estim