No GST on free food supplied by temples, mosques, churches, gurudwaras

Clarification was issued by finance ministry

 

Dismissing media reports circulating about taxes levied on free food supplied in anna kshetras run by religious institutions under the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the Finance Ministry clarified that such food will not attract any charges.

In a notification issues on Tuesday, the Ministry said 'prasadam' supplied by religious places like temples, mosques, churches and gurudwaras will not be subject to any Central, State or Integrated GST, as the case may be.

However, some of the ingredients and input services required for making the same would be subject to taxation under the new regime. These include sugar, vegetable edible oils, ghee, butter, service for transportation of these goods and so on.

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Most of these inputs or input services have multiple uses. Therefore, under the GST, it is difficult to prescribe a separate tax rate for such items, when supplied for a particular purpose.

Further, the GST being a multi-stage tax, end use-based exemptions or concessions are difficult to administer. Therefore, the GST does not envisage such exemptions. It would, therefore, not be desirable to provide similar exemption for inputs or input services for making prasadam or food for free distribution by religious institutions.

Earlier, on July 2, Union Food and Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal had urged Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to exempt all purchases made by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) for 'langar sewa' or service at the community kitchen, under the GST........ Full article Source

Are hotels, eateries overcharging you? How to get the math right

Food served at restaurants attract tax at two rates under GST - 12 per cent and 18 per cent

 

 

As consumers, we are hardly aware of the components included in the restaurant bills. Next time do check your bill to see if the proper GST or goods or services tax rate has been levied. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Tuesday clarified on rates of GST for restaurants.

Food served at restaurants attract tax at two rates under GST - 12 per cent and 18 per cent (including both CGST (Central GST) and SGST (State GST)) - depending on whether it is an AC restaurant or whether the restaurant has the licence to serve alcohol.
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Understanding your restaurant bill - 

If you revisit your food bill from the pre-GST fine-dine experience, you’ll find Service Tax, Service Charge, VAT being added over and above the food value.

 

VAT: This was the tax charged on the food portion of your bill.

Service tax: This was the tax charged on the services provided by the restaurant.

 

Service Charge: This is a charge applied by the restaurants and not by the government. It is not mandatory to pay the service charge, as per government rules.

 

 

However, the rates under GST are vastly different than what you would find before the tax policy change. Let us look at these changed rates below...... Full Article Source

How ClearTax has made tax filing really easy

Some of the ways by which ClearTax has eased the process of e-filing income tax returns for taxpayer

 

 

 

One of the biggest pain-points that taxpayers face at the time of filing income tax returns is struggling through the technical terms and jargon associated with income tax. There are numerous fields in tax-filing forms that need to be filled.

The process gets cumbersome right from the start, when a taxpayer has to choose a tax filing form. More often than not, taxpayers end up choosing the incorrect form. Even filling up the required information becomes difficult, especially for a salaried employee who doesn’t know much about the different sectors and fields.

The only solution for them was to get hold of a CA and provide all the documents required. That wasn’t easy either. All of this lead to taxpayers dreading the income tax filing season. But that was until ClearTax came into the picture. Just by itself, ClearTax solved all of these problems for taxpayers. Here’s how:

• Automatic parsing of Form 16
• E-filing without Form 16
• Support for multiple Form 16s
• Pull data from Form 26AS
• E-filing for non-salaried taxpayers

These are some of the ways by which ClearTax has eased the process of e-filing income tax returns for taxpayers. Apart from that, ClearTax also offers a mutual fund investment platform to help taxpayers save tax and build wealth.......Full Article Source

Tax dept gets busy on 15% hike in mop-up target

The proposed target comes sans any amnesty scheme

 

 

Income Tax efiling - Ahead of an uphill collection target for the current financial year (FY18), the income tax department has prepared a multi-pronged strategy to achieve 15.7 per cent growth, without any amnesty schemes that provided a buffer last year. There’s also been a reduction in the rate for the lowest income slab.

The strategy includes litigation management, disposal of high-value cases, scaling up of searches and seizures, strengthening of systems and investigation teams, and tying with global data mining companies for information gathering.

The income tax return department has a collection target of Rs 9.8 lakh crore for 2017-18, up 15.7 per cent, compared with growth of 14.3 per cent in 2016-17. The rate on annual income between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 5 lakh has been cut to five per cent from the earlier 10 per cent.

“The compliance rate has shown an improvement after demonetisation, which will also facilitate higher collection. Litigation management, arrears recovery, information gathering and enforcement action will be the top areas of focus,” said a senior official.

The commissioner (appeals) has been asked to expedite clearance of high value tax filing cases of Rs 50 crore and above. “We want such cases to be decided early. If the sum is to be freed, take a decision early. If it needs to be recovered, that too we should know early, to devise a strategy,” said the........... read more

CBDT devises special plan to dispose of 300,000 pending cases

The pending cases choked Rs 6.11 lakh crore revenue to tax department

 

 

Faced with "mounting" litigation that has "choked" the revenue stream, the CBDT has formulated an action plan to dispose of about 3 lakh cases, bearing Rs 6.11 lakh crore revenue, that are pending before its appeals commissioners across the country.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), that frames policies for the Income Tax Department, has now directed the I-T appeals commissioners to dispose of 500 cases per annum and priortise them where either the demand is less than Rs 10 lakh or over Rs 50 crore.

The Board has expressed serious concerns over the "rising" cases of litigation in the department, which it said has "assumed grave proportions".

It added that "mounting litigation" has choked the revenue stream and is leading to wastage of scarce resources.

According to official data, as of April 1, a total of 2,90,227 cases are pending before the department's first appellate authority--Commissioner of Income Tax filing(CIT)(appeals) --involving an amount of Rs 6.11 lakh crore.

Out of this, demands amounting to Rs 1.18 lakh crore have been stayed by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) or other courts.

The IT Return Department has a multi-tier appellate mechanism for a taxpayer, who has been issued a tax demand notice, can go in for appeal........read more

Aaykar Setu: Now solve I-T issues, pay taxes, apply for PAN, via CBDT app

CBDT app will also help people link their Aadhaar with Permanent Account Number (PAN)

 

Paying income tax, applying for PAN and seeking redressal of grievances have become easier as the tax department today launched an app allowing taxpayers perform basic functions through their smartphone.

The mobile app will also help people link their 12- digit biometric identifier Aadhaar with Permanent Account Number (PAN) card as well as track the TDS deduction details.

The mobile app 'Aaykar Setu', launched by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, literally means bridge for taxpayers and will be available in Android phones.

"This is a very important step forward by the CBDT and the principle reason being technology as a very powerful tool becomes an enabler. (With the app) most of the work the assessee can discharge without any external help sitting at home," the minister said.

This is the first mobile app by the CBDT and can be downloaded by giving missed calls to 7306525252.

The app will have a live chat facility named 'Chatbot' from 10 am to 6 pm which will provide solution to queries of taxpayers relating to PAN, TAN, TDS, efiling of income tax, refund status and tax payments.

Besides, people can also have a live chat with tax experts and provides address of nearby tax return preparer.

It provides ease of use of all the services related to tax payment including tax payment, tax calculation. Also if a taxpayer has a problem, this app will help in lodging his grievance in the e-Nivaran module of the CBDT.

The taxpayers will also be able to receive regular updates regarding important tax dates, forms and notifications on mobile numbers registered with the ITD......read more

Auditors' to disclose property related transactions above Rs 20,000 to I-T

The move will increase transparency in financial dealings and help check tax evasion

 

 

Efiling of Income tax - Auditors will now have to disclose details of transactions exceeding Rs 20,000 in connection with immovable property in reports, which they file with the Income Tax (I-T) authorities on behalf of their clients.

Under the Income Tax Act, professionals earning gross receipts of more than Rs 50 lakh and companies with a turnover of Rs one crore and above are required to get their accounts audited. The turnover limit for companies has been increased to Rs two crore from Assessment year 2018-19.

So far, auditors in their report had to mention details of loans, and repayment exceeding Rs 20,000 in the tax audit report filed along with Income Tax returns. Henceforth, all transactions exceeding Rs 20,000 relating to immovable property will have to be mentioned in a specified format in the report.
The move will increase transparency in financial dealings and help check tax evasion.

As per the notification by the IT Return department, auditors will have to furnish details of transactions regarding "each specified sum" exceeding Rs 20,000 from financial year 2016- 17. These would include money paid or received with regard to immovable property.

The auditor report will also have to specify details of the mode of payments whether account payee or bearer cheque, or through electronic system.

Through the notification, the tax department has revised the form 3CD for tax audit report under section 44AB of Income Tax Act.......read more

Demonetisation effect: Direct tax mop-up grows 15% to Rs 1.42 lakh cr in Q1

Overall advance taxes, both personal and corporate, grew by 11.9% to Rs 58,783 crore

 

 

Advance tax paid by individuals recorded 40 per cent growth in the first quarter (April-June) of the current financial year.

This could be an impact of the demonetisation of high-value currencies, with more non-corporate entities recording higher incomes.

Overall income tax direct collection after refunds expanded by 14.8 per cent to Rs 1.42 lakh crore over the corresponding period in 2016.

“The government has benefited from demonetisation, as people have started reporting higher income,” Sushil Chandra, chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, told Business Standard.

Overall advance taxes, both personal and corporate, grew by 11.9 per cent to Rs 58,783 crore. Advance tax is paid within a specified period after the money is earned, rather than waiting for the end of the financial year.

Electronic filing of income tax returns up to June for 2016-17 grew by 18 per cent, suggesting that more people regularised their unaccounted income. “People are aware now that the income tax department is carrying out lots of searches and surveys and that black money will not be tolerated any more,” said Chandra.

“Last year, we cleared a lot of pending refunds for the year-ago period, whereas there are no pending refunds of the past fiscal (year) this time,”........ read source

I-T dept attaches Rs 300-cr alleged benami assets of Bhujbal, family

The department alleged assets were allegedly created by them using a maze of about 4 dozen shell cos

 

Alleged benami assets worth Rs 300 crore of Nationalist Congress Party leader Chagan Bhujbal and his family have been attached by the income tax department, which has slapped charges under a newly-enacted criminal law against them.

The Income Tax Department alleged the assets were allegedly created by them using a maze of about four dozen shell companies.

In fresh trouble for the jailed former deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, the IT Return department has issued notices for provisional attachment of assets of Bhujbal, son Pankaj and nephew Sameer Bhujbal, and has identified them as “beneficiaries” of the alleged benami assets. The attachment notice, accessed by PTI, has been issued under Section 24(3) of the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 2016 (where the taxman thinks the person in possession of the property held benami may alienate the property).

The immovable assets attached under the order include Girna sugar mills in Nashik valued at over Rs 80.97 crore and multi-storeyed residential building Solitaire in Mumbai's Santacruz West area valued at more than Rs 11.30 crore. Tax Filing.

While the mills are in the name of Armstrong Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, the house is in the name of Parvesh Construction Pvt Ltd....

Income tax returns made easy: Step-by-step guide to filling the 1-page form

Only salaried individuals having an income up to Rs 50 lakh can use this form

 

 

The ITR 1 Sahaj form is a one-page simplified income tax return form introduced by the government for salaried individuals to ease the filing process. Only salaried individuals having an income up to Rs 50 lakh can use this form. However, if along with salary income, you have income from more than one house property, capital gains, income from agriculture exceeding Rs 5,000, foreign income/assets, business income or income from winnings from lottery/gambling, then you cannot use this form.
ITR 1 Sahaj consists of the following parts:

Part A – General information
Part B – Gross total income
Part C – Deductions and taxable total income
Part D – Computation of tax payable
Part E – Other information

Schedule IT
Here you need to enter the details of all the payments for advance efiling of income tax and self-assessment tax made by you. You have to mention the BSR code, date of payment, serial number of the challan, and amount of tax paid.

 

Schedule TDS

 

Here you have to quote the complete details of every TDS/TCS transaction deducted on your income tax filing. You should furnish these details in accordance with Form 16 issued by your employer and Form 16A issued by a person in respect of interest income and other sources of income. Also, details of TCS in accordance with Form 27D issued by the tax collector should be furnished.