Proposed Changes in Budget for Financial Year 2015-16

These are the proposed changes in Budget for FY 2015-2016

Particulars	Existing Provisions for FY 2014-15 OR AY 2015-16	Proposed Changes in Budget for FY 2015-16  OR AY 2016-17
Surcharge on taxable income exceeding Rs. 1 Crore for Individuals, Senior Citizens, Very Senior Citizens, HUFs, AOPs, BOIs, artificial juridical persons, firms, cooperative societies and local authorities	10% of Income Tax	12% of Income Tax
Comparison of Benefits under various IT Sections
Exempted amount of transport allowance	Rs. 800/- per month	Rs. 1,600/- per month
Section 80D - Deduction for Health  Insurance premium	Rs. 15,000/-	Rs. 25,000/-
Section 80D - Deduction for Health  Insurance premium for Senior Citizens	Rs. 20,000/-	Rs. 30,000/-
Investment in Sukanya Samriddhi Scheme	-	Eligible for deduction u/s 80C and any payment from the scheme shall not be liable to tax.
Section 80DDB - Deduction in case of very senior citizens on expenditure on account of specified diseases	Rs. 60,000/-	Rs. 80,000/-
Section 80DD - Maintenance, including medical treatment of a dependent who is a person with disability	Rs. 50,000/-	Rs. 75,000/-
Section 80DD - Maintenance, including medical treatment of a dependent who is a person with severe disability	Rs. 1,00,000/-	Rs. 1,25,000/-
Section 80U - Person with disability	Rs. 50,000/-	Rs. 75,000/-
Section 80U - Person with severe disability	Rs. 1,00,000/-	Rs. 1,25,000/-
Section 80CCC - Contribution to provident fund of LIC or IRDA approved insurer	Rs. 1,00,000/-	Rs. 1,50,000/-
Section 80CCD - Contribution by the employee to National Pension Scheme (NPS)	Rs. 1,00,000/-	Rs. 1,50,000/- The budget also proposes to provide a deduction of upto Rs. 50,000 over and above the limit of Rs. 1.50 lakh in respect of contributions made to NPS.

Registration of Proprietorship Firms

Resident individuals can start business in very basic form. That individual is the only owner of the firm. This is most simple and quick method of starting a business, especially where the individual wants the 100% ownership and a  complete business privacy, start-ups can always experiment using this form of organization.

We can help you in registering the firm with required Authorities. With simply opening of bank account and some other basic things like an office space, letterheads, visiting cards, phone numbers, you can start the registered Proprietorship firm.

Things to do:

·       

       Advising on choice of formation and suggesting the best suitable form of organization, especially with start-ups.

·        Getting necessary registrations with required Authorities such as VAT (for trading firms), Service Tax (for service industries) and Excise (for the Manufacturing concerns)

·         Securing business name and logo by registering with Trade Mark and Service Mark authorities

·         Assistance in opening Current Account in bank

·         Advising on necessary compliances after registrations

Once the registration is done, you can start your business. To further help you, we also provide a monthly package accounting system designed especially for small and medium sized business at very compelling prices and facilitating a designated contact person and monthly visits and reporting.

This enables you cut the cost since separate full time accountants are not required to be hired and also the compliances and reports are updated for a bird’s eye glance.

For More Information: Audit Firms in India

Do you Worry of Profit Margins

You can achieve profit margins with same customers, physical sales, same systems, no more staff or extra overhead costs, existing premises and capacity. There are several ways of achieving it using simple methods.

First you need to figure out your profit margin. It’s no good using estimated inventory figures or working from the figure in your last Annual Financials.

Second, analyze your profit margins.  Find out the gross profit margin on each of your products and services, and, in addition, analyse your gross margins over different business divisions, product categories, suppliers or customer categories according to your business. This way you can identify both low margin or loss-making items and profitable activities or products. Then you can stop selling low margin lines and focus on the ones that work.

Third thing you should increase prices. It is quite difficult. In this process we can lose the odd customers . If your margin is 50%, a 10% increase in prices means you can lose 17% of your customers yet be no worse off!

You should offer no discount. Discounting can be the death of many businesses that don’t realise how badly this destroys your margins. At that same margin of 50%, if you discount your prices by 10%, you need a 25% increase in sales just to stand still. Say goodbye to your day off!

Take cash discounts from customers. It’s normally a much better deal than trying to delay payment, even if you’re borrowing.

You should prevent theft of any kind. Whether stolen by staff, customers, losing cash is very costly. Do you have anti-shoplifting or theft prevention systems in place, even for staff? Do you balance your tills? Who does your banking?

Increasing your margins is all about making the most of what you sell right now.

India’s GDP growth rate to reach 8% by 2017: World Bank

The World Bank has predicted a GDP growth rate of 8 per cent for India by 2017 and said that a strong expansion in the country, coupled with favourable oil prices, would accelerate the economic growth in South Asia.

In India, GDP growth is expected to accelerate to 7.5 per cent in fiscal year 2015/16. It could reach 8 per cent in FY 2017/18, on the back of significant acceleration of investment growth to 12 per cent during FY 2016-FY 2018, the bank said in its semi-annual report.

The country is attempting to shift from consumption to investment-led growth, at a time when China is undergoing the opposite transition, it said.

The bank’s twice-a-year South Asia Economic Focus report projected steady increase in regional growth from 7 per cent in 2015 to 7.6 per cent by 2017 on grounds of strong consumption and increasing investment.

Read more at:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/46915422.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

List of common tax saving investments and things you should take care of

You might be ready to book the losses from the investment, but are you okay with tax benefits being rolled back?
We often make hasty investments during the tax season and end up investing in bad products. If we stay with these investments, we have a liability that doesn't match our financial goals.

If we decide to forgo, we lose returns and the tax benefits.Here is a quick list of common tax saving investments and things you should take care of before you tinker with them.

Employees' provident fund
If you withdraw your EPF before 5 years of service, the entire amount, including the interest earned on it, gets added to your income and therefore is taxable.This can actually make a big dent in your pocket.

Even a small salary of Rs 25,000, the 12% EPF contribution works out to be Rs 3,000 a month. That is, Rs 36,000 a year. The rule applies even if you quit the job and then withdraw your EPF , unless, the reason for termination is beyond your control.

Unit-linked insurance plans (ULIPs) have a lock-in period of five years and terminating the policy before that would mean the premium along with the returns earned so far gets added to your net income.The Irda guidelines apply the five year lock-in criteria on top-up premiums as well. 

Endowment Plans
Tax benefits get rolled back if you terminate the plan before two years. Ending an endowment plan before three years is anyway a losing proposition as you receive the guaranteed surrender value only when you have paid premium for at least three years.

The benefits claimed under section 80 C gets added to your taxable income in the year of withdrawal. Which means, if you have invested Rs 1 lakh so far (two annual premiums of Rs 50,000), you'll have to cough up an additional tax of at least Rs 10,000. 

Home loans

Last budget increased the limit under Sec 24 B by Rs 1 lakh and now you can claim a deduction of up to Rs 2 lakh every financial year for interest paid on home loans. The catch here is that you should get the possession of the property within three years of purchase.

However, this rule is only applicable for self-occupied properties. A rented second house, or deemed as rented, is not bound by such restrictions Also, for the second house, there is no cap on the amount claimed as interest paid.

If you sell the house on loan within 5 years of purchase, for that year, the principal amount gets added to your income and you will be taxed according to your income slab. 

Sale of Property
Some people invest in new properties to avoid capital gains tax arising from sell transfer of an older property . However, remember that, selling of property , which is exempt from capital gains (section 5454F), within three years of purchase will make the transaction taxable. Similarly, specific security bonds issued by NHAI and REC, exempted under Section 54 EC, are also bought to save capital gains tax. 

For Guidance Visit: http://www.raaas.com

How a two-year-old firm is hitting a daily turnover of Rs 4,000 crore today

If the lives of start-up founders are about sweat, blood and tears, no one told the trio at Mumbai-based discount broking firm RKSV.

To be honest, they had a considerably smooth ride.  Within two years of starting operations and largely operating in a dull market, RKSV is now clocking daily turnover of Rs 4,000 crore.

That's about 1.3 per cent of total turnover of NSE, in a business where even the leaders are at 5-6 per cent. For the US-bred trio — Raghu, brother Ravi and their friend Shrinivas Viswanath — it was a move by the Indian capital market regulator to allow algorithmic trading that encouraged them to dip their toes in Indian waters.

And when the Securities and Exchange Board of India allowed the direct market access (DMA) facility in April 2008, which gives investors direct access to a stock exchange's trading system, they decided to put in both their feet.

Prior to 2009, their only connection with India was the occasional visit to meet relatives. "DMA was the reason we came to India. We saw a lot of opportunities and wanted to explore them," says Raghu, a University of Illinois graduate in actuarial science and finance.

The concept of algorithmic, or high frequency, trading was not alien to them. Before coming to India, the brothers were active in the US foreign exchange markets between 2006 and 2008.

But, in October 2008, they had to wind up after the global financial markets imploded; trading opportunities had dried up, liquidity had shrunk and spreads had widened enough. By then, however, they made a killing of about $2 million, giving them the self-belief — and the capital — to explore other business ideas.

In 2009, Raghu and Ravi, along with Viswanath, a computer engineer in New York, shifted base to India. Although the Indian markets were alien to them, funding a venture was never a problem.

Raghu and Ravi spent the first two years trading with their own money, which helped them gauge the pulse of the market here. Meanwhile, they secured a membership to the Bombay Stock Exchange, which had slashed its fees significantly to rope in more members.

After making good money in the two years in proprietary trading, they saw stockbroking as a natural progression. But to set up shop in India, at the time they did, was a contrarian call.

Disappointed by the previous government's tardy attitude towards business and economic policies, business confidence in India had hit its nadir. Foreign investors were wary and several nonresident Indians (NRIs) were returning to countries where they held passports. The broking industry was bleeding too. While competition in institutional broking business was fierce, retail investors had deserted the markets.

But there was still a segment of market participants that was underserved: traders, for whom high brokerage costs was making it difficult to make money. "We realised there were many traders who did not have cheaper options to trade," says Kumar. "What shocked us was the number of branches that retail brokerages had, which is not the case in the US."

It did not take too much time for RKSV's business to pick up as its relatively-older rival Zerodha had taken the plunge by then. Although there was little that RKSV could do to hold an edge in terms of technology, it managed to attract clients by launching the 'unlimited trading model', where traders can transact for as many times at a fixed cost.

Currently, RKSV has about 20,000 clients. They are serviced by about 50 employees from its office in Mumbai's emerging financial services hub, Bandra-Kurla Complex. Raghu said the firm is looking to double its client base to about 40,000 in 2014-15. That's not bad for a two-year-old, first-generation firm.