Income Tax in Media

“Even on 10th of February, just 5 days before the deadline (for ITR, Audit reports filing), if problems are still faced then we will extend the deadline. There will be an issuance of the writ, which will have its effect across the country” : Says Gujarat HC. Read more

Infosys CEO Salil Parekh on Wednesday said the company is working closely with the Income Tax Department on the next set of areas related to the I-T portal as new modules will be added to it. Infosys, in 2019, was given the contract to develop the new portal. It was launched in June last year and stakeholders had reported glitches and difficulties in the functioning of the portal. Read more

The All Odisha Tax Advocates Association (AOTAA) has issued a legal notice to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) for not extending ITR filing deadline of filing returns of assessees of Odisha for the Assessment Year 2021-2022 and imposing late filing fee under section 234F of the Income Tax Act, 1961, in spite of many technical glitches in the new portal of the Income Tax Department. (ET Wealth online has a copy of the legal notice.) Read more

There is no proposal to extend the date for income tax return filing: Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj, Govt of India.

The last date for filing returns for assessment year 2021-22 is December 31. Persistent glitches at the new income tax portal have prompted tax professionals to urge union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to extend the income tax filing deadline to February 28, 2022. Direct Tax Professionals’ Association has listed several problems with the new income tax portal, which was inaugurated in June but has since faced flak on account of multiple technical glitches. According to the DTPA, the income tax portal is not allowing the filing of Form 10-IE, which allows taxpayers to exercise/withdraw the option on the new income tax regime. Read more

In a major relief for about 1.33 lakh taxpayers, who had got notices for the reassessment of their returns from FY14 till date, Delhi High Court on Wednesday quashed 1,353 such notices issued by the Income Tax Department issued under Section 148. Read more

In an attempt to make filing income tax returns (ITR) more taxpayer-friendly, the government launched an e-filing portal this year. While announcing that the deadline for filing the income tax returns (ITR) for assessment year 2021-22 is 31 December, the Income Tax department has urged taxpayers to file their returns soon using their e-filing portal. Read more

The union government has no plans to abolish long term capital gains (LTCG) tax on equities and mutual funds, ministry of finance told Parliament on Tuesday in reply to a question raised in the House. The government has also said it has no plan to increase the period of LTCG from one year to two years for mutual funds and equities. Read more

The spurt in both goods and services tax (GST) collections and issuance of e-way bills in November reaffirm economic recovery. GST revenues stood at over Rs 1.3 lakh crore, about 24% higher than those for November 2020, but trailed the April collections of Rs 1.40 lakh crore. A record 7.35 crore e-way bills were generated. However, the government is a long way from achieving the full potential of GST to raise taxes, in particular, direct taxes. This requires completing the GST chain, diligently… Read more

In the 45th meeting of the GST Council held on September 17, 2021, the Council constituted a Group of Ministers (GoM) Committee to examine matters related to rationalisation of GST rates. The objective of the group is to simplify the rate structure of GST to reduce classification related disputes and enhance GST revenues. The specific objectives of the GoM on Rate Rationalization are the following: – review the exempted supply of goods and services under GST with an objective to expand the tax base as well as elimination of breaking of ITC chain, review the current tax rates of GST and recommend changes to generate required revenue, review the current rate structure of GST and recommend rationalization measures (including merger of tax slabs for simplification) and review the instances of inverted duty structure and recommend suitable rates to eliminate the same. Read more

The Income Tax Department has reopened old assessments of at least a dozen global fund houses and private equity funds alleging under-reporting of income through the misuse of tax treaties. The department has asked them to explain irregularities in computation of income for the assessment years 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16, the official said. Read more

The Income Tax Department initiated search and seizure operations on two major business groups of Indore on 25.11.2021. The first group is engaged in the business of mining, media and providing cable TV services and the second group is running a coaching academy. The search action has covered more than 70 premises in Madhya Pradesh and 5 other states. Read more

The Income Tax Department carried out search and seizure operations on 10.11.2021 on two groups, one engaged in real estate and hospitality and the other, a tools and equipment manufacturing group at Gurugram. Total cash amounting to Rs. 3.54 crore and Jewellery valued at Rs. 5.15 crore have been seized. In total, 18 bank lockers have been placed under restraint. The search action, in these groups, has led to the detection of estimated unaccounted income to the tune of Rs. 600 crore. Read more

CBDT issues refunds of over Rs.1,02,952 crore to more than 77.92 lakh taxpayers from 1st April, 2021 to 25th October, 2021. Income tax refunds of Rs.27,965 crore have been issued in 76,21,956 cases & corporate tax refunds of Rs.74,987 crore have been issued in 1,07,424 cases (1/2).

A rickshaw puller applied for a PAN card at the Jan Suvidha Kendra in Bakalpur. He got a coloured photocopy of the PAN card from one person of Bakalpur.. He could not differentiate between an original PAN card and a coloured photocopy of the same. He said he got a call from IT officials on October 19 and was served a notice, asking him to pay Rs 3,47,54,896. He said the officials told him that someone had impersonated him and obtained a GST number on his name for running a business and the turnover of the trader for 2018-19 was Rs 43,44,36,201. Read more

Income Tax Department conducted raids on the factories and residences of several bicycle and its parts manufacturers at around 5 am today. The officials of the department are tight-lipped on the raids. Till the filing of the report, the surveys-cum-raids were on. Well-placed sources inform that around 25-30 teams are conducting the raids. It is learnt that the raids are being conducted under the supervision of a woman official and the members of the teams are from Panchkula too. Read more

The Centre is looking at modifying the ambitious Faceless Assessment Scheme (FAS) meant to cut down the physical interface between a taxpayer and the Income Tax Department. Among other things, the change could offer flexibility to the top rung of taxpayers whose income exceeds Rs 200 crore. Read more

Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman took a meeting with Mr. Salil Parekh, MD & CEO, Infosys here today afternoon to convey the deep disappointment and concerns of the Government and the taxpayers about the continuing glitches in the e-filing portal of the Income Tax Department even after two and half months since its launch, which was also delayed. Smt. Sitharaman sought an explanation from Infosys for the repeated issues faced by taxpayers. The Finance Minister demanded that the issues faced by taxpayers on current functionalities of the portal should be resolved by the team by 15th September, 2021 so that taxpayers and professionals can work seamlessly on the portal. Read more

Finance Ministry has summoned Infosys managing director and chief executive over troubles with the new income tax e-filing portal. Managing Director has been called to appear before the Ministry of Finance on August 23, Monday, to explain to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as to why even after 2.5 months since launch of new e-filing portal, glitches in the portal have not been resolved, Read more

The Income Tax Department conducted searches on 16.08.2021 on a company engaged in trading of telecom equipment and installation and servicing of these items for various telecom players in India. Searches were conducted at 5 premises, including the corporate office, residence of foreign director, residence of company secretary, accounts person and the cash handler of a foreign subsidiary company in India. The search revealed that the purchases of the assessee company were entirely from its holding company. Examination of import bills vis-à-vis sale bills show that there is huge gross profit (approximately 30%) on trading of these items, however, the company has been booking huge losses over the years. Read more

With glitches still haunting the new income tax portal, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said the Infosys-developed website will be fixed entirely in the next few days. Read more

Tax department sources said that more than 1,00,000 income tax returns are being filed on new income-tax portal every day since July 24 and the number is still rising. Between July 13 and July 28 more than 550,000 forms were filed. Read more

CBDT said that the Income Tax Department has raided a north India-based ‘pan masala’ manufacturing group and thereby detected unaccounted transactions of more than Rs. 400 crore. Read more

Income Tax India has twitted today that CBDT issues refunds of over Rs. 43,991 crore to more than 21.03 lakh taxpayers between 01.04.2021 to 26.07.2021. Income tax refunds of Rs. 13,341 crore have been issued in 19,89,912 cases & corporate tax refunds of Rs. 30,651 crore have been issued in 1,12,567 cases. Read more

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said that she wished the Infosys-developed website did not have such a launch but hoped issues will be sorted out soon.

“Infosys is quite closely working with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and the ministry and rapidly, at least from what I hear from chartered accountants and income tax professionals, there is definitely a lot of improvement,” she added. Read more

Parliament was informed on Monday that Rs.164.5 crore was paid to Infosys to build the new Income Tax e-filing portal during the period between January 2019 and June 2021. After the portal was launched tax professional found technical glitches and based on which Infosys has mitigated those issues. Govt is in touch with Infosys and getting all the issues reported by taxpayers, tax professionals solved. Read more.