Some say that ‘tax and death’
are inevitable…. As a good and responsible citizen, it is our bounden duty to
pay our taxes promptly….there are direct and indirect taxes and for those of us
– whose life entirely dwells on going to work, looking eagerly for the salary
day, overspending whatever is earned – in the month of March struggle for
making tax savings and come July, file our tax returns without fail….
The Central Government has been empowered by
Entry 82 of the Union List of Schedule VII of the Constitution of India to levy
tax on all income other than agricultural income. The Income Tax Law comprises
The Income Tax Act 1961, Income Tax Rules 1962, Notifications and Circulars
issued by Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Annual Finance Acts and Judicial
pronouncements by Supreme Court and High Courts. The Government of India
imposes an income tax on taxable income of all persons including individuals,
Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs), companies, firms, association of persons, body
of individuals, local authority and any other artificial judicial person. The CBDT is a part of Department of Revenue in
the Ministry of Finance. On one hand, CBDT provides essential inputs for policy
and planning of direct taxes in
India
,at
the same time it is also responsible for administration of direct tax laws
through the Income Tax Department.
Sure you have received the form 16 – the
essential document issued by Employer detailing salary, tax incidence and the
amount of tax deducted from your salary at source. There can be two
categories – those whose assessable income is less than 5 lakhs and above 5
lakhs. The Central Board of Direct Taxes
(CBDT) earlier in May this year made the E-filing of income tax return
compulsory. The rule is applicable starting the assessment year 2013-14 for
persons having total assessable income exceeding Rs.5 lakh. More importantly,
unlike the past two years, salaried persons earning up to Rs.5 lakh annually
will have to file income tax returns, CBDT said.
The CBDT had exempted salaried employees
having total income of upto Rs.5 lakh including income from other sources upto
Rs.10,000 from the requirement of filing income tax return for assessment year
2011-12 and 2012-13, respectively. "The exemption was available only for
the assessment years 2011-12 and 2012-13...the exemption provided during the
last two years is not being extended for assessment year 2013-14," the
CBDT said in a statement.
To put it simply – every one with assessable
income taxable will have to file their return …….. for those with income above
Rs.5 lakhs, e-filing is mandatory. It is
not too cumbersome; for filing returns, an assessee can transmit the data in
the return electronically by downloading ITRs, or by online filing ~ and it
does not stop there. After filing
electronically, the assessee should
submit the verification of the return from ITR-V for acknowledgement
after signature to Central Processing Centre.
In the past, the special counters operated
from IT Offices in Chennai, Mumbai and
Delhi
….
But don’t leave it until the proverbial 11th hour and rush for paying it on the
last day. Some basic steps to be
remembered are :
Do
not use your Office e-mail address on ITR from, preferable to have your
personal ID for reference
Never
hide any income – pay tax at your slab for all that you receive from various
sources [if any]
Make
sure that you mention the income arising out of sale of house property; rent
received; interest earned etc.,
Collect
all the relevant documents from the
financial institutions where you have taken loan / placed deposit etc.,
When you file your returns electronically, you
would immediately get a confirmatory mail from the Income Tax department at
your registered mail id. You are
required to verify, print and sign the acknowledgement [ITR-V] and send it by
Ordinary Post Or Speed Post Only within
a period of 120 days from the date of transmitting the data electronically, to
the address as mentioned below. The Dept
will not accept ITR-V sent by Registered Post or Courier. Further, ITR-V will not be received in any other
office of the Income-tax Department or in any other manner. The address to
which the acknowledgement is to be sent is :
Income Tax Department - CPC,
Post Bag No – 1,
Electronic City Post Office,
Bangalore
– 560100.
Tailpiece: Only for the salaried
income, who are overtly worried about their income and the taxes deducted. Indian Express recently had this newsitem
stating that the CBDT has launched an inquiry into a contentious income-tax
order which dismissed a tax demand of Rs 980 crore on now-jailed Haryana
politician Gopal Goyal Kanda and his business ventures, including the MDLR
Group. The inquiry is also expected to look into the sequence of events leading
to the tax demand being dismissed as it was categorised as
"collectable" in February 2010, shifted to the
"difficult-to-recover" category a month later before being completely
dismissed in March 2012.
With regards –
S.
Sampathkumar
.
27th July 2013.