New Initiative by Income Tax Department to resolve Complaints

Taxpayers facing unfair scrutiny by the Income Tax Department can have facility to get their grievances redressed in a short period of time. They do not need to take the route of courts and follow other mechanisms.

The Finance Ministry through the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), has asked the Income Tax Department to create “local committees” embracing senior officers in each region, and provide solution of all complaint petitions within two months from the end of month in which complaint received.

Income Tax Department is going to set up these committees across the country from next month.

A taxpayer, who feels unsatisfied by an order of a tax assessment officer or thinks it is irrational, can petition the committee which will be publicised in the media by the respective tax regions, the official said.

You can consult any tax consultant in India. They provide support from company registration to filing e-returns.

IT Department: Better monitoring of Taxpayer Email’s

There is another directive to enhance taxpayer services, the IT department asked its customer care centers to manage the email based complaints efficiently and send them to tax officers.

India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitely brought out two taxpayer friendly initiatives which envisage the resolution of complaints on email and easy process to get a PAN card.

Aayakar Sampark kendras (ASK) will forward emails to range in-charge who will subsequently send to jurisdictional Assessing Officers (AOs) henceforth.

The region heads will be responsible for monitoring the emails.

The ASKs or the I-T customer care centres, are meant to answer queries related to the status of Permanent Account Number and Tax deduction Account Number applications, procedure of filing of Income Tax and Wealth Tax returns, refund related grievances and for redressal of other general queries over phone calls or email.

[ Other people are reading: Tax Exemptions for Yoga Gurus]

The taxpayer will also get notifications about processing of his requests and he may do further correspondence with the concerned officer.

Finance Minister inaugurated e-sahyog initiative yesterday is aimed at reducing compliance cost.
It will help in matching the difference in returns of taxpayers whose returns have not been selected for scrutiny. Taxpayers do not need to appear before tax authorities.

In the pilot project, 91,000 tax payers have been identified. They will be notified by SMS and email about the mismatch and then they will have to log in to e-filing portal of the tax department to see the mismatch.

[Other people are reading: Range Concept: Accurate Calculations]

It is very necessary to file e-returns accurately and with in time limit. It is always a good option to consult a tax consultant before filing e-returns. You can save a lot of money in this process. Chartered accountant can assist you in filing e-returns.

Tax Exemptions for Yoga

There’s good news for the Yoga Gurus who carry out their activities via charitable trusts. There are exemptions by the Indian Government on the income generated from the Yoga related activities. We all know that India’s PM Narender Modi has put yoga on the world map; the finance ministry has done something to boost yoga related activities by providing income tax and service tax exemptions. They do not have need to pay service tax of 14 percent. It will boost Yoga promotion activities across the country.

Yoga is very very necessary for the fitness of an individual. It is a great step taken by finance ministry.   

Range Concept: Accurate Calculations

In order to align transfer price calculations with that of international best practices, Government is going to incorporate “range concept”.

The government on Tuesday notified amendments to the transfer pricing rules to incorporate a "range concept" to align transfer price calculations with that of international best practices.

The amended regime will be applicable for computation of arms length pricing (ALP) of international transactions and specified domestic transactions undertaken on or after April 1, 2014, a finance ministry press release states.

It will enhance the reliability of the analysis used for the computation of ALP. It will begin with the 35th percentile and end with the 65th percentile of the comparable prices. 

Ruchi Anand and Associates is prominent tax consultants in India, who provide services that include audit services, company registration, risk advisory services, etc.   

Pilot Project: Ease for tax payers

Pilot project has been started by the Income Tax Department for sending notices, getting replies and to carry out tax assessments with the help of email in order to make an attempt to make sure taxpayers don’t have to visit I-T offices physically.

Five locations including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Chennai has been identified by the Central Board of Direct Taxes(CBDT) and 100 initial cases for e-hearing.

Cases covered under the pilot project would be those which have been selected for scrutiny on the basis of AIR/CIB information or non-matching with 26AS-data.

Consent of taxpayers will be considered and cases of willing taxpayers will be included in this project. Official e-mail Ids will be used by tax officials.


Ruchi Anand and Associates is prominent tax advisor in India, India, who provide services that include audit services, company registration, risk advisory services, etc.   

Benefit to Non- Residents under Income Tax Act,1961

1. Who is a Non-Resident

Section 2(30) defines non-resident as a person who is not a resident. Section 6 lays down the test of residency for different taxpayers as under:

A. Individual

An individual is said to be non-resident in India if he is not a resident in India. An individual shall be deemed to be resident in India if he satisfies any of the following conditions:

1.  If he is in India for a period of 182 days or more during the previous year; or

2.  If he is in India for a period of 60 days or more during the previous year and 365 days or more during 4 years immediately preceding the previous year.

Condition no. 2 is not taken into consideration in cases given below:

a) If an Indian citizen leaves India during the previous year for the purpose of employment outside India;

b)If an Indian citizen leaves India during the previous year as a member of the crew of an Indian ship; 

or c)  If an Indian citizen or a person of Indian origin comes on a visit to India during the previous year. [A person shall be deemed to be of Indian origin if he or either of his parents or any of his grand-parents, was born in undivided India] Note: With effect from Assessment Year 2015-16, in the case of an individual, being a citizen of India and a member of the crew of a foreign bound ship leaving India, the period or periods of stay in India shall, in respect of such voyage, be determined in the manner and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed.

B. Partnership firm : A partnership firm is treated as non-resident in India if control and management of its affairs are situated wholly outside India. C. Company An Indian company is always resident in India. A foreign company is treated as resident if, during the previous year, control and management of its affairs is situated wholly in India. In other words, a foreign company is treated as non-resident if control and management of its affairs is situated wholly or partly outside India.

Read more at: http://taxguru.in/income-tax/benefits-residents-income-tax-act1961.html

You can also contact Ruchi Anand and Associates for any type of information on tax benefits 

IT-Department: Pay Advance Income Tax

In order to widen the tax base, all the traders and businessman were asked to pay advance tax rather than paying at the end of the financial year. The motive is to calculate assesses in the starting and helps in making critical decisions. The Government asked the tax man to bring one crore new tax  payers within the current fiscal year.

Central Board of Direct Taxes asked the taxman to include 5.32 lakh new assesses. With this initiative, income tax department is now holding public sessions called ‘ Seedha samvad’ with the industry and trade bodies in the public places. One session was organized in the kamla market near Delhi University(Delhi), with the North Delhi Traders Federation. Department did Pan mapping in Kamla market, it was disappointing that the tax returns have decreased as compared to last financial years. There can be several reasons for it. Traders were requested by the department to pay advance tax on time and spread this message in friends and community. 

Advance tax is known as ‘pay as you earn tax’ and a person having a  tax liability greater than Rs.10,000 in a fiscal, needs to make the payments in instalment rather than doing it at the end of the year.

It will surely help Indian Government to pre-assess the budget and to apply new techniques in order to make sure that no businessman or trader left who have a tax liability.

Filing tax returns on time helps the government as well as you to improve the economy. These changes occur frequently, but you do not have to worry about these changes. You can consult any chartered accountant firm. Ruchi Anand and Associates, the top tax consultants in India can assist you to understand this process.