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DIRECT TAXES
Direct Tax proposals aim to maintain continuity and stability of taxation, further simplify and rationalise various provisions to reduce the compliance burden, promote the entrepreneurial spirit and provide tax relief to citizens.
Constant endeavour of the Income Tax Department to improve Tax Payers Services by making compliance easy and smooth.
To further improve tax payer services, proposal to roll out a next-generation Common IT Return Form for tax payer convenience, along with plans to strengthen the grievance redressal mechanism.
Rebate limit of Personal Income Tax to be increased to Rs. 7 lakh from the current Rs. 5 lakh in the new tax regime. Thus, persons in the new tax regime, with income up to Rs. 7 lakh to not pay any tax.
Tax structure in new personal income tax regime, introduced in 2020 with six income slabs, to change by reducing the number of slabs to five and increasing the tax exemption limit to Rs. 3 lakh. Change to provide major relief to all tax payers in the new regime.
New tax rates
|
Total Income (Rs) |
Rate (per cent) |
|
Up to 3,00,000 |
Nil |
|
From 3,00,001 to 6,00,000 |
5 |
|
From 6,00,001 to 9,00,000 |
10 |
|
From 9,00,001 to 12,00,000 |
15 |
|
From 12,00,001 to 15,00,000 |
20 |
|
Above 15,00,000 |
30 |
Proposal to extend the benefit of standard deduction of Rs. 50,000 to salaried individual, and deduction from family pension up to Rs. 15,000, in the new tax regime.
Highest surcharge rate to reduce from 37 per cent to 25 per cent in the new tax regime. This to further result in reduction of the maximum personal income tax rate to 39 per cent.
The limit for tax exemption on leave encashment on retirement of non-government salaried employees to increase to Rs. 25 lakh.
The new income tax regime to be made the default tax regime. However, citizens will continue to have the option to avail the benefit of the old tax regime.
Enhanced limits for micro enterprises and certain professionals for availing the benefit of presumptive taxation proposed. Increased limit to apply only in case the amount or aggregate of the amounts received during the year, in cash, does not exceed five per cent of the total gross receipts/turnover.
Deduction for expenditure incurred on payments made to MSMEs to be allowed only when payment is actually made in order to support MSMEs in timely receipt of payments.
New co-operatives that commence manufacturing activities till 31.3.2024 to get the benefit of a lower tax rate of 15 per cent, as presently available to new manufacturing companies.
Opportunity provided to sugar co-operatives to claim payments made to sugarcane farmers for the period prior to assessment year 2016-17 as expenditure. This expected to provide them a relief of almost Rs. 10,000 crore.
Provision of a higher limit of Rs. 2 lakh per member for cash deposits to and loans in cash by Primary Agricultural Co-operative Societies (PACS) and Primary Co-operative Agriculture and Rural Development Banks (PCARDBs).
A higher limit of Rs. 3 crore for TDS on cash withdrawal to be provided to co-operative societies.
Date of incorporation for income tax benefits to start-ups to be extended from 31.03.23 to 31.3.24.
Proposal to provide the benefit of carry forward of losses on change of shareholding of start-ups from seven years of incorporation to ten years.
Deduction from capital gains on investment in residential house under sections 54 and 54F to be capped at Rs. 10 crore for better targeting of tax concessions and exemptions.
Proposal to limit income tax exemption from proceeds of insurance policies with very high value. Where aggregate of premium for life insurance policies (other than ULIP) issued on or after 1st April, 2023 is above Rs. 5 lakh, income from only those policies with aggregate premium up to Rs. 5 lakh shall be exempt.
Income of authorities, boards and commissions set up by statutes of the Union or State for the purpose of housing, development of cities, towns and villages, and regulating, or regulating and developing an activity or matter, proposed to be exempted from income tax.
Minimum threshold of Rs. 10,000/- for TDS to be removed and taxability relating to online gaming to be clarified. Proposal to provide for TDS and taxability on net winnings at the time of withdrawal or at the end of the financial year.
Conversion of gold into electronic gold receipt and vice versa not to be treated as capital gain.
TDS rate to be reduced from 30 per cent to 20 per cent on taxable portion of EPF withdrawal in non-PAN cases.
Income from Market Linked Debentures to be taxed.
Deployment of about 100 Joint Commissioners for disposal of small appeals in order to reduce the pendency of appeals at Commissioner level.
Increased selectivity in taking up appeal cases for scrutiny of returns already received this year.
Period of tax benefits to funds relocating to IFSC, GIFT City extended till 31.03.2025.
Certain acts of omission of liquidators under section 276A of the Income Tax Act to be decriminalized with effect from 1st April, 2023.
Carry forward of losses on strategic disinvestment including that of IDBI Bank to be allowed.
Agniveer Fund to be provided EEE status. The payment received from the Agniveer Corpus Fund by the Agniveers enrolled in Agnipath Scheme, 2022 proposed to be exempt from taxes. Deduction in the computation of total income is proposed to be allowed to the Agniveer on the contribution made by him or the Central Government to his Seva Nidhi account.
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Direct Taxes
******
New Delhi, 11th January, 2023
PRESS RELEASE
Direct Tax Collections for F.Y. 2022-23 up to 10.01.2023
The provisional figures of Direct Tax collections up to 10th January, 2023 continue to register steady growth. Direct Tax collections up to 10th January, 2023 show that gross collections are at Rs. 14.71 lakh crore which is 24.58% higher than the gross collections for the corresponding period of last year. Direct Tax collection, net of refunds, stands at Rs. 12.31 lakh crore which is 19.55 % higher than the net collections for the corresponding period of last year. This collection is 86.68% of the total Budget Estimates of Direct Taxes for F.Y. 2022-23.
So far as the growth rate for Corporate Income Tax (CIT) and Personal Income Tax (PIT) in terms of gross revenue collections is concerned, the growth rate for CIT is 19.72% while that for PIT (including STT) is 30.46%. After adjustment of refunds, the net growth in CIT collections is 18.33% and that in PIT collections is 21.64% (PIT only)/ 20.97% (PIT including STT).
Refunds amounting to Rs.2.40 lakh crore have been issued during 1st April, 2022 to 10th January 2023, which are 58.74% higher than refunds issued during the same period in the preceding year.
(Surabhi Ahluwalia)
Pr. Commissioner of Income Tax
(Media & Technical Policy)
Official Spokesperson, CBDT.
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Direct Taxes
PRESS RELEASE
Gross Direct Tax collections for the Financial Year (FY) 2022-23 register a growth of 25.90%
Net Direct Tax collections for the FY 2022-23have grown at over 19.81%
Advance Tax collections for the FY 2022-23 stand at Rs. 5,21,302 crore as on 17.12.2022 which shows a growth of 12.83%
Refunds aggregating to Rs. 2,27,896 crore have been issued in the current fiscal
The figures of Direct Tax collections for the Financial Year 2022-23, as on 17.12.2022 show that net collections are at Rs. 11,35,754 crore, compared to Rs. 9,47,959 crore in the corresponding period of the preceding Financial Year i.e FY 2021-22, representing an increase of 19.81%.
The Net Direct Tax collection of Rs. 11,35,754 crore (as on 17.12.2022) includes Corporation Tax (CIT) at Rs. 6,06,679 crore (net of refund) and Personal Income Tax (PIT) including Securities Transaction Tax(STT) at Rs. 5,26,477 crore (net of refund).
The Gross collection of Direct Taxes (before adjusting for refunds) for the FY 2022-23 stands at Rs. 13,63,649 crore compared to Rs. 10,83,150 crore in the corresponding period of the preceding financial year, registering a growth of 25.90% over collections of F.Y. 2021-22.
The Gross collection of Rs. 13,63,649 crore includes Corporation Tax (CIT) at Rs. 7,25,036 crore and Personal Income Tax (PIT) including Securities Transaction Tax(STT) at Rs. 6,35,920 crore. Minor head wise collection comprises Advance Tax of Rs. 5,21,302 crore; Tax Deducted at Source of Rs. 6,44,761 crore; Self-Assessment Tax of Rs. 1,40,105 crore; Regular Assessment Tax of Rs. 46,244 crore; and Tax under other minor heads of Rs. 11,237 crore.
The cumulative Advance Tax collections for the first, second and third quarter of the F.Y. 2022-23 stand at Rs. 5,21,302 crore as on 17.12.2022, against Advance Tax collections of Rs. 4,62,038 crore for the corresponding period of the immediately preceding Financial Year i.e. 2021-22, showing a growth of 12.83%. The Advance Tax collection of Rs. 5,21,302 crore as on 17.12.2022 includes Corporation Tax (CIT) at Rs. 3,97,364 crore and Personal Income Tax (PIT) at Rs. 1,23,936 crore.
There has been a remarkable increase in the speed of processing of income tax returns filed during the current fiscal, with almost 96.5% of the duly verified ITRs having been processed till 17.12.2022. This has resulted in faster issue of refunds with almost a 109% increase in the number of refunds issued in the current financial year. Refunds amounting to Rs. 2,27,896 crore have been issued in the FY 2022-23 till 17.12.2022, as against refunds of Rs.1,35,191 crore issued during the corresponding period in the preceding Financial Year 2021-22, showing a growth of over 68.57%.
(Surabhi Ahluwalia)
Pr. Commissioner of Income Tax
(Media & Technical Policy)
Official Spokesperson, CBDT
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Direct Taxes
New Delhi, 17th November, 2022
PRESS RELEASE
Income Tax Department conducts search actions in Karnataka
Income Tax Department initiated Search & Seizure actions on 20.10.2022 and 02.11.2022 on certain individuals who had executed Joint Development Agreements (JDAs) with various real-estate developers. The search action covered more than 50 premises spread across Bengaluru, Mumbai and Goa.
During the course of the search operations, a large number of incriminating evidences, in the form of documents and digital data have been found & seized. Evidences regarding the sale agreements, development agreements and occupancy certificates (OCs) have also been seized. These evidences revealed that the land owners had not disclosed income accrued to them from capital gains on transfer of the land given for development through JDAs to various developers, even after issue of the OCs from the authorities.
It was also unearthed that in many instances, the land owners suppressed income from capital gains for various years by artificially inflating the cost of acquisition & various other costs, and by not disclosing full value of consideration on transfer land. It was also found that some of the land owners didn’t even file their ITRs for various years, where capital gains income had accrued to them. When confronted , the assessees concerned admitted their lapses and agreed to disclose income from capital gains detected in their respective cases, and pay due taxes thereon.
So far, the search actions have led to detection of unaccounted income of more than Rs. 1300 crore. Further, undisclosed assets in the nature of cash and gold jewellery worth more than Rs. 24 crore have also been seized.
Further investigations are in progress.
(Surabhi Ahluwalia)
Pr. Commissioner of Income Tax
(Media & Technical Policy)
Official Spokesperson, CBDT
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
(Central Board of Direct Taxes)
New Delhi, 1st November, 2022
Sub: Draft common Income-tax Return-request for inputs from stakeholders and the general public- reg.
Presently, taxpayers are required to furnish their Income-tax returns in ITR-1 to ITR-7 depending upon the type of person and nature of income. The current ITRs are in the form of designated forms wherein the taxpayer is mandatorily required to go through all the schedules, irrespective of the fact whether that particular schedule is applicable or not. This increases the time taken to file the ITRs and in turn may create avoidable difficulties for taxpayers.
2. The proposed draft ITR takes a relook at the return filing system in tandem with international best practices. It proposes to introduce a common ITR by merging all the existing returns of income except ITR-7. However, the current ITR-1 and ITR-4 will continue. This will give an option to such taxpayers to file the return either in the existing form (ITR-1 or ITR-4) or the proposed common ITR, at their convenience.
3. The draft ITR aims to bring ease of filing returns and reduce the time for filing the ITR by individuals and non-business-type taxpayers considerably. The taxpayers will not be required to see the schedules that do not apply to them. It intends the smart design of schedules in a user-friendly manner with a better arrangement, logical flow, and increased scope of pre-filling. It will also facilitate the proper reconciliation of third-party data available with the Income-tax Department vis a vis the data to be reported in the ITR to reduce the compliance burden on the taxpayers.
4. The scheme of the proposed common ITR is as follows:
(a) Basic information (comprising parts A to E), Schedule for computation of total income (Schedule TI), Schedule for computation of tax (schedule TTI), Details of bank accounts, and a schedule for the tax payments (schedule TXP) is applicable for all the taxpayers.
(b) The ITR is customized for the taxpayers with applicable schedules based on certain questions answered by the taxpayers (wizard questions).
(c) The questions have been designed in such a manner and order that if the answer to any question is ‘no’, the other questions linked to this question will not be shown to him.
(d) Instructions have been added to assist the filing of the return containing the directions regarding the applicable schedules.
(e) The proposed ITR has been designed in such a manner that each row contains one distinct value only. This will simplify the return filing process.
(f) The utility for the ITR will be rolled out in such a manner that only applicable fields of the schedule will be visible and wherever necessary, the set of fields will appear more than once. For example, in the case of more than one house property, the schedule HP will be repeated for each property. Similarly, where the taxpayer has capital gains from the sale of shares taxable under section 112A only, applicable fields of schedule CG, relating to 112A, shall be visible to him.
4.1. As evident from above, the taxpayer is required to answer questions which apply to him and fill the schedules linked to those questions where the answer has been given as ‘yes’. As a result, the time and energy of the taxpayer will be saved and he will be relieved of the additional burden of going through all the parts of the ITR as is the requirement under the existing ITRs. This will increase ease of compliance.
5. The draft ITR, based on the above scheme, is enclosed in Annexure A. Further, a sample ITR illustrating the step-by-step approach for filing the ITR in Annexure B and two customized sample ITRs for the firm and company in Annexure C and Annexure D respectively are also enclosed for illustrative purposes. Annexure A is a consolidated document containing all the questions, schedules, and detailed instructions thereon. It is reiterated that only relevant questions/schedules will apply to a taxpayer. Once the common ITR Form is notified, after taking into account the inputs received from stakeholders, the online utility will be released by the Income-tax Department. In such a utility, a customized ITR containing only the applicable questions and schedules will be available to the taxpayer.
6. The inputs on the draft ITR may be sent electronically to the email address dirtpl4@nic.in with a copy to dirtpl1@nic.in by 15th December 2022.