Need more direct and indirect tax reforms: Tarun Bajaj

• 5TH DECEMBER,2022
  With regard to direct taxes, there is a need to "fix the capital gains on all fronts. Second is the personal income tax and the third is to rewrite the code itself to simplify it," Bajaj told ET in an interview. "If you do that, litigation will reduce," he said, laying down the agenda for reform. He said the goods and services tax (GST) needs to be rationalised and there is a case for making the exemption-less personal income tax regime better than the old one. In the case of GST, the number of slabs needs to be reduced and another look taken at exemptions. "We are reaching a stage in our economy where we need to give complete stability to the tax structures on both sides," he said.
  

General

Need more direct and indirect tax reforms: Tarun Bajaj

• Dec 05, 2022
•                                                                                                                                                                                                     
There is need for further reforms in the direct and indirect tax regimes, revenue secretary Tarun Bajaj said.

With regard to direct taxes, there is a need to "fix the capital gains on all fronts. Second is the personal income tax and the third is to rewrite the code itself to simplify it," Bajaj told ET in an interview. "If you do that, litigation will reduce," he said, laying down the agenda for reform.

He said the goods and services tax (GST) needs to be rationalised and there is a case for making the exemption-less personal income tax regime better than the old one. In the case of GST, the number of slabs needs to be reduced and another look taken at exemptions. "We are reaching a stage in our economy where we need to give complete stability to the tax structures on both sides," he said.

Income Tax

I-T dept sends notices to firms to enquire about their foreign assets

• Dec 05, 2022

• The Income Tax (I-T) Department's Foreign Asset Investigation Unit (FAIU) has reportedly sent notices to local companies, including some listed entities enquiring about the hidden assets overseas. The bid to hunt for black money by FAIU was earlier limited only to individuals but has now expanded to companies, a report by the Economic Times (ET) said. The intelligence unit has sent notices to at least eight Mumbai firms and asked for information on their directors. Earlier, FAIU's enquiries were limited to residents' hidden assets, including their bank accounts and shareholding in foreign firms and trusts.

Income Tax

Budget may not be right time to restructure capital gains tax: Revenue Secretary

• Dec 05, 2022                                                                                                                                            

• The new alternative tax regime should be incentivised to encourage more taxpayers to adopt it, says Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj in an interview with Shrimi Choudhary. Bajaj, who superannuates today, suggests this could be done by raising the lower tax slab up to Rs 7-7.5 lakh, from the current Rs 2.5 lakh. He also stresses that restructuring the capital gains tax regime requires detailed consultation and the run-up to the Budget may not be the right time to do this.

Income Tax

Income tax department moves to resolve tax refund issues quickly

Dec 05, 2022                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              The income-tax department has issued instructions to ensure taxpayer grievances about adjustment of tax dues against pending refunds are resolved quickly to check avoidable litigation. The tax department has told its top officers, including all principal chief commissioners, that it observed instances of incorrect adjustment of outstanding tax demands against tax refunds that are due to assessees. That, the department said, is due to incorrect classification of tax demands as ‘correct and collectable’ or not receiving feedback from tax officers on grievances filed by assessees.
                                                                                                                           

Income Tax

Income Tax department reduces time for taxmen to decide on refund adjustment

• Dec 05, 2022 

  The income tax department has reduced the time for tax officers to decide on adjustment of refunds against outstanding tax dues to 21 days, a move which will help avoid litigation.

  The time limit of 30 days made available to the assessing officers stands reduced to 21 days, the Directorate of Income Tax (Systems) said.

  “If the assessee either does not agree or partially agrees for adjustment, the matter shall be referred by CPC immediately to the assessing officer, who shall, within 21 days from the date of such reference, shall provide feedback to CPC as to whether the adjustment should be made or not,” it added AMRG & Associates Senior Partner Rajat Mohan said in many cases involving the adjustment of refunds, the Centralised Processing Centre (CPC) noticed that wrong categorisation of demand or lack of feedback from the AO (Assessing Officer) on the assessee’s response led to incorrect adjustment of refunds, resulting in needless complaints and litigations. Another concern was that the AO did not promptly respond to the assessees’ complaints.

Income Tax

The Key Principles of GAAP or Basic Accounting Principles

1ST DECEMBER,2022

There are general concepts that lay out the main mission of GAAP.
1. Principle of Regularity:- The accountant has adhered to GAAP rules and regulations as a standard.
2. Principle of Consistency:- Accountants commit to applying the same standards throughout the reporting process, from one period to the next, to ensure financial comparability between periods. Accountants are expected to fully disclose and explain the reasons behind any changed or updated standards in the footnotes to the financial statements.
3. Principle of Sincerity:- The accountant strives to provide an accurate and impartial depiction of a company’s financial situation.
4. Principle of Permanence of Methods:- The procedures used in financial reporting should be consistent, allowing a comparison of the company's financial information.
5. Principle of Non-Compensation:- Both negatives and positives should be reported with full transparency and without the expectation of debt compensation.
6. Principle of Prudence:- This refers to emphasizing fact-based financial data representation that is not clouded by speculation.
7. Principle of Continuity:- While valuing assets, it should be assumed the business will continue to operate.
8. Principle of Periodicity:- Entries should be distributed across the appropriate periods of time. For example, revenue should be reported in its relevant accounting period.
9. Principle of Materiality:- Accountants must strive to fully disclose all financial data and accounting information in financial reports.
10. Principle of Utmost Good Faith:- Derived from the Latin phrase uberrimae fidei used within the insurance industry. It presupposes that parties remain honest in all transactions.
Note: At our firm, we are committed to provide the best services without compromising the quality of work. 

Accounting

Govt working on decriminalising certain offences under GST, lower compounding charges

• Sep 29, 2022
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• The government is working on decriminalisation of certain offences under GST by raising the threshold limit for launching prosecution and also lowering charges for compounding of offence, an official said. Currently, the law provides for launching prosecution against offenders in cases where the amount of Goods and Services Tax (GST) evasion or misuse of input tax credit is more than Rs 5 crore.

GST