India gets 4th set of Swiss bank account details under automatic info exchange framework

• Oct 11, 2022
  India has received the fourth set of Swiss bank account details of its nationals and organisations as part of an annual automatic information exchange under which Switzerland has shared particulars of nearly 34 lakh financial accounts with 101 countries.Officials said the new details shared with India pertain to “hundreds of financial accounts”, including many cases of multiple accounts associated with some individuals, corporates and trusts.
  

Income Tax

OECD norms to bring clarity on crypto tax

Oct 12, 2022

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has submitted a Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) to the G20 to increase global transparency in the reporting of tax information on transactions in crypto-assets in a standardised manner. The mechanism will facilitate automatic exchange of information among jurisdictions on an annual basis.

International Tax

Educational trusts for profit cannot claim income tax exemption: SC

• Oct 20, 2022
  Supreme Court on Wednesday said profit-oriented educational trusts or societies cannot claim exemption under the Income Tax Act.The bench of Chief Justice of India UU Lalit, Justices S Ravindra Bhat and PS Narasimha said that such educational trusts or societies should solely be concerned with education or education related activities under Section 10(23C) of the Income Tax Act(the Act).
  

• The Section states that any university or other educational institution existing solely for educational purposes and not for purposes of profit, and which is wholly or substantially financed by the Government qualify for tax exemption under the said section."Our Constitution reflects a value which equates education with charity. That it is to be treated as neither business, trade, nor commerce, has been declared by the pronouncement of this very court," the court said.

Income Tax

Public utilities to lose tax waiver if engaged in commerce: SC

• Oct 21, 2022
  
  

• The Supreme Court held that a general public utility (GPU) cannot engage in any trade or commercial activity if it wants to claim income tax exemptions available to organisations doing charitable work.

  However, statutory corporations, boards, authorities, commissions, etc, in the housing development, town planning, industrial development sectors with objects of GPU are entitled to be considered as charities in the GPU categories for taxation purpose, even when they are involved or engaged in activities in the nature of trade, commerce or business, it added.

General

Direct tax mop-up may beat budget estimate by 30%

• Oct 22, 2022
  The Centre’s direct tax revenues may rise 25-30% on year, allowing it to net an additional Rs 2.5 trillion over the budget estimate (BE) after the mandatory devolution to states, a senior finance ministry official told FE. The extra receipts would give a cushion to the government, which is looking at an additional subsidy expenditure of Rs 2.8 trillion over the budgeted level, the official said.The indirect tax collections will also see a marginal increase over the BE, despite the excise duty cuts on petrol and diesel announced in May.

Income Tax

Govt likely to surpass FY23 tax collection goal by over $24 billion

• Oct 29, 2022

  India is expected to surpass its tax collection goal by more than Rs 2 lakh crore ($24.3 billion) in the current fiscal year, according to two officials with knowledge on the matter.Strong revenue receipts is giving Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government leeway to contain the budget deficit within 6.4% of gross domestic product amid a ballooning subsidy bill, said the two officials. A finance ministry spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.

• Steady collections and measures to reduce tax evasion are helping bolster revenue against a target of Rs 19.34 lakh crore rupees, they said. The government will likely collect this financial year an additional Rs 300 billion-400 billion rupees from windfall tax imposed on export of some fuels and local production of crude oil from July, the officials said.

General

I-T dept committees on high-pitched assessments to submit report in about 2 months: CBDT

• Nov 14, 2022

• New Delhi, The 'local committees' formed to deal with taxpayers' grievances arising out of 'high-pitched' scrutiny assessments shall submit their report within about two months, the CBDT has reiterated in a public communication. A set of "revised" guidelines were issued by the Board in this context in April and these were applicable for cases being scrutinised under both the faceless and non-faceless assessment system.The local committees have been created in each region of the income tax department, that are headed by a principal chief commissioner rank officer (Pr. CCIT), and will comprise three officials of the I-T department in the rank of principal commissioner or commissioner.

Income Tax

Tax-Authorities Tighten Noose Around Under-Invoicing of Chinese Imports

Nov 15, 2022

Tax authorities in India are investigating under-invoicing of goods imported from China after the trade data highlighted a glaring difference of around $12 billion in the data sourced from China and India, the Economic Times reported.

On comparison, the trade data from the two countries show invoiced imports into the country are far less than exports from China to India. Taking cognizance of the same, the customs authorities have issued tax-evasion notices to 32 importers since September. Tax authorities suspect a tax evasion of more than Rs 16,000 crore through under-invoicing by businesses from April 2019 to December 2020. And more such notices are likely to be issued by the tax authorities in the coming days, the report said.

International Tax