Govt extends GST return filing deadline for cos who want to claim credit for past taxes

The deadline for first GST Return, GSTR- 3B, has been extended (states are still coming up with Notifications) to August 28 from its original deadline of August 20. However, one must keep in mind that this is only for taxpayers who opt to use the opening balance of pre-GST credit in the current month. Those who do not wish to claim opening credit in the current month or those who have no credit; the deadline continues to be August 20.

The extended deadline also allows the taxpayers to file form TRAN 1 by August 28, which is a pre requisite as per the strict interpretation of law to claim the opening credit.

“Interestingly, TRAN 1 filing system is not up and running yet on GST portal. The industry raised the working capital issue as without filing TRAN 1 they could not have taken the benefit of the opening credit, resulting in adverse cash flow impact in the first month of GST implementation,” says KPMG India, Partner, Priyajit Ghosh.

The other key points to note are as follows:

a) The extended deadline would also help GST portal to ready itself for implementing TRAN 1 filing system.

b) Considering the elaborate reporting requirements under TRAN 1, the window of 8 days appears to be far less for the tax payers.

c) There is no clarity on revision of TRAN 1 and there would be interest implications in case of excess credit claim hence, most taxpayers would avoid hasty filing of TRAN 1, even after extension of timeline. It seems most have braced up for the adverse cash flow position already.

However, businesses are unsure if the extension of eight days is enough. TRAN 1 is a fairly complex form and something that businesses have never dealt with. Input credit as a mechanism is also a new concept and it may take some time for businesses to come to grips with it.
“It is a much awaited notification for the industry as it was not clear as to whether opening input credit can be claimed while filing GSTR 3B. Now, the businesses will be able to claim opening credit by filing TRAN 1 before 28th August, which is the revised due date for filing GSTR 3B. However, since GST has to be paid by August 20th, businesses will have to determine the opening credit beforehand. It is not clear, however, as to whether TRAN 1, once filed, can be revised later,” said PwC, Partner and Leader Indirect Tax, Pratik Jain in a statement.

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No Rs. 2,000 ‘Withdrawal’, New 200-Rupee Note Coming: Junior Finance Minister

On July 26, the issue was raised in Parliament when the opposition asked Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to confirm if the government was going to “demonetise Rs. 2,000 notes” and if its printing had been stopped.

New Delhi: With rumours of the Centre planning a withdrawal of the newly-introduced Rs. 2,000 note doing the rounds, Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar has said there was no news of its scrapping, adding the Rs. 200 note will be in circulation soon. “No news that Rs. 2,000 will be scrapped,” Mr Gangwar told IANS in an interview.

“The reduction in printing of new Rs. 2,000 notes is a separate issue. But that needs to be confirmed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). RBI will give information on Rs. 2,000 notes,” he added.

According to media reports, the government has stopped further printing of the recently printed Rs. 2,000 notes.

On July 26, the issue was raised in Parliament when the opposition asked Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to confirm if the government was going to “demonetise Rs. 2,000 notes” and if its printing had been stopped. The minister declined to reply.

Industry experts said the government was aiming to limit the circulation of high denomination Rs. 2,000 note, which would remain a legal tender, but not demonetise it. The circulation of smaller denomination notes would be increased by introducing a new Rs. 200 note.

Mr Gangwar told IANS that Rs. 200 note, printing of which had already begun, would be in circulation soon. The move to introduce Rs. 200 note was to increase the circulation of smaller denomination notes, he added.

A top government official, on condition of anonymity, told IANS that the Rs. 200 note would be introduced in the markets in August.

“The paper for Rs. 200 notes was ready in the Mysuru paper mill in June. It should be in circulation next month,” the official said.

The Mysuru paper mill is joint venture of Security Printing and Minting Corp of India Ltd (SMPCIL) and Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Private Limited (BRBNMPL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of RBI.

The Rs. 200 new note was being printed in the RBI printing press. India has four currency note printing pressess — two RBI presses at Mysuru (Karnataka) and Salboni (West Bengal) and two Security Printing and Minting Corp of India Ltd (SMPCIL) presses at Nashik (Maharashtra) and Dewas (Madhya Pradesh). SPMCIL is a public sector unit.

Lauding the introduction of Rs. 200 note, a State Bank of India (SBI) report recently said that it would serve as the “missing middle”.

“It seems that there has been a significant move towards relocating distribution of currency towards smaller denominations post demonetisation. However, while such a move is laudable and consistent with the long term vision of a less cash economy, we need to consider the following issues.

“Though the number of small denomination notes has increased, the mismatch caused by the presence of Rs. 2,000 denomination straight after Rs. 500 denomination is causing difficulties in exchanging the high denomination notes,” the SBI Ecowrap report noted.

Post-demonetisation, there were reports of people facing problems in using the Rs. 2,000 note as sufficient quantum of smaller denomination notes of Rs. 100 and Rs. 500 were not available.

The government had brought in the Rs. 2,000 note immediately after November 8, 2016 demonetisation to expedite remonetisation.

The economy is now close to complete remonetisation as the new currency in circulation reached 84 per cent of the extinguished one on July 7, according to the SBI Ecowrap report.

The total amount of the spiked high value denomination notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 in circulation on November 8 was 15.44 lakh crore.(Source: NDTV)

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Deadline for Aadhaar-PAN linking extended till August 31

The government on Monday notified that it has extended the deadline for linking Aadhaar with PAN (Permanent Account Number). The last date for the linking has now been finalised for August 31. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) also said that the Income Tax Returns (ITRs) will be processed only after the linking has been completed.

In a series of tweets from its verified handle, the Finance Ministry clarified that for e-filing of ITR, it is sufficient to quote Aadhaar or acknowledgement number but the linking needs to be completed before August 31.

Earlier, in a last minute decision, the government on Monday also extended the deadline for filing Income Tax Returns (ITRs) till August 5.

The official twitter handle of the tax department said the move was made "in view of difficulties faced by taxpayers."

A senior official of the department said the decision to extend the deadline was taken after a meeting of the revenue department and the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) was held in the finance ministry on Monday.

Section 139AA of the I-T Act has made it mandatory to quote the Aadhaar number or the application number for I-T returns filed on or after July 1 this year. On June 9, the Supreme Court upheld this.

Those without an Aadhaar or its application number are in a spot, as taxpayers with an income of above Rs 5 lakh have to mandatorily file their I-T returns online.(Source: Times Of India)







The government has said linking of Aadhaar with PAN was an effective anti-evasion measure and had helped weed out bogus PAN cards.

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Extension of date for filing of Income Tax Returns

Government of India 

Ministry of Finance 

Department of Revenue 

Central Board of Direct Taxes 

New Delhi, 31st July, 2017 

PRESS RELEASE 

Extension of date for filing of Income Tax Returns 

There are some complaints that the taxpayers are not being able to log on to the e-filing website of Income Tax Department or not being able to link Aadhaar with PAN because of different names reflected in PAN and Aadhaar database. While technical snags have been removed already, the main reason for failure of people to log in is because of last minute rush and panic in which those who have already logged in want to continue for the entire period for fear of losing it. In order to ease out the panic situation, the Government has decided to take the following steps:

. For the purpose of e-filing return, it would be sufficient as of now to quote Aadhaar or acknowledgement No. for having applied for Aadhaar in e-filing website. The actual linking of PAN with Aadhaar can be done subsequently, but any time before 31st August, 2017. However, the returns will not be processed until the linkage of Aadhaar with PAN is done.

2. In order to facilitate the e-filing of return, it is also decided to give extension of five days for e-filing of return. The return can be filed upto 5th August, 2017.

(Surabhi Ahluwalia) 

Commissioner of Income Tax 

(Media & Technical Policy) 

Official Spokesperson, CBDT

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Demonetisation crackdown round two: Tax sleuths target corporate accounts

After targeting individuals who made large cash deposits in banks during or after demonetisation, the income-tax department is now going after businesses that deposited lots of cash in corporate accounts in the second round of demonetisation tax notices.

Since Monday last week, the department has been sending notices to entrepreneurs, including some prominent jewellers, diamond traders, textile merchants and real estate developers, who have have deposited money in their corporate bank accounts, a Mumbai-based income-tax official said.

This round of tax notices is focused on "big fish", the official said. "Anyone who may have deposited unexplained cash in bank accounts after demonetisation has received notices. The tax notices were sent through emails of the taxpayers," the person said. People in the know said the number of tax notices sent since last week could be in lakhs.

At the time of deposits, most companies had claimed it was cash on hand from their business activities. The main source cited was from sale proceeds. Along with the notices, the tax department has sent bank statements of such transactions and asked these businesses to disclose details of the source of income through a questionnaire consisting four questions.

"Tax department is seeking the information of the customers to whom the cash sales are made," said senior chartered accountant Dilip Lakhani. "Assessees are asked to give the bifurcation of the customers as to whether they are identified or unidentified and as to whether they hold PAN number or not. The tax department may cross verify the genuineness of the transaction where the customers are identified and having PAN number," he said. 

The first set of demonetisation tax notices was sent to individuals around January this year. ET was the first to report on January 28 that about 5,000 tax notices were sent to those who had deposited Rs 1 crore or more in their bank accounts. While the second wave of tax notices has begun, the tax department is continuing with those who were sent notices in January.

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Optional reporting of details of one foreign bank account by the non-residents in refund cases

Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Direct Taxes
PRESS RELEASE

New Delhi,24th July, 2017.

Optional reporting of details of one foreign bank account by the non-residents in refund cases
Refund generated on processing of return of income is currently, credited directly to the bank accounts of the tax-payers. Availability of the detail of bank accounts in which the refund is to be credited is a precondition for direct credit of refund in the bank accounts.

Income-tax Return Forms for the Assessment Year 2017-18 were notified on 30th March, 2017.
A number of representations were received from the non -residents that they are facing difficulties in getting refund as they do not have bank account in India and there is no column in the notified form of return of income for reporting details of foreign bank account by the non-residents for this purpose.

In view of this, a facility has been provided in return utility for reporting of details of bank account
by non -residents, who do not have bank account in India and who are claiming income -tax refund.
Therefore, the non -residents who are not claiming refund or non-residents who are claiming refund but having a bank account in India are not required to furnish details of their foreign bank account in the return of income. However, the non-residents, who are claiming income-tax refund and not having bank account in India may, at their option, furnish the details of one foreign bank account in the return of income for issuance of refund.


(Meenakshi J Goswami)
Commissioner of Income Tax
(Media & Technical Policy)
Official Spokesperson, CBDT.

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Modification of Circular No.1 of 2014 in view of substitution of Service Tax by Goods and Services Tax (GST).

CIRCULAR No. 23/2017

F. No. 275/59/2012-IT (B)

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

Department of Revenue

Central Board of Direct Taxes

North Block, New Delhi

19th July, 2017

Subject: Modification of Circular No.1 of 2014 in view of substitution of Service Tax by Goods and Services Tax (GST).

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (the Board) had earlier issued Circular No. 1/2014 dated 13.01.2014 clarifying that wherever in terms of the agreement or contract between the payer and the payee, the Service Tax component comprised in the amount payable to a resident is indicated separately, tax shall be deducted at source under Chapter XVII-B of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (the Act) on the amount paid or payable without including such Service Tax component.
2. References have been received in the Board seeking clarification as to what treatment would be required to be given to the component of Goods and Services Tax (GST) on services, which has been introduced by the Government with effect from 1^st of July, 2017 and into which the erstwhile Service Tax has been subsumed.
3. The matter has been examined. It is noted that the Government has brought in force a new Goods and Services Tax regime with effect from 01.07.2017 replacing, amongst others, the Service Tax which was being charged prior to this date as per the provisions of Finance Act, 1994. Therefore, there is a need to harmonize; the content of Circular No. 1/2014 of the Board with the new system for taxation of services under the GST regime.
4. In the light of the fact that even under the new GST regime, the rationale of excluding the tax component from the purview of TDS remains valid, the Board hereby clarifies that wherever in terms of the agreement or contract between the payer and the payee, the component of 'GST on services' comprised in the amount payable to a resident is indicated separately, tax shall be deducted at source under Chapter XVII-B of the Act on the amount paid or payable without including such 'GST on services' component. GST for these purposes shall include Integrated Goods and Services Tax, Central Goods and Services Tax, State Goods and Services Tax and Union Territory Goods and Services Tax.
5. For the purposes of this Circular, any reference to 'service tax ' in an existing agreement or contract which was entered prior to 01.07.2017 shall be treated as 'GST on services' with respect to the period from 01.07.2017 onward till the expiry of such agreement or contract.
6. Hindi version shall follow.

(Sandeep Singh)

Under Secretary to the Government of India

Tele : 23094182

Email: sandeep.singh68@nic.in

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High-income taxpayers to get priority treatment and extra facilities

Welcome priority taxpayer, how may I help you? That could be the greeting you may get from the taxman, an encounter that's traditionally been far from friendly.

Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has begun work on a plan based on the recognition that 80 per cent of India's direct tax is paid by 20,000 individuals and entities.

There is a strong view in government circles that they be accorded better treatment along the lines of priority customers, an official official said.
Such a priority taxpayer will be able to meet a tax official across the table to resolve questions over liability.

Any assessment order on such taxpayers will be vetted by a specialist in that sector before being issued to the company, according to the proposal under discussion. This will help reduce litigation and disputes that India's tax system is burdened, it is hoped. "A taxpayer is like a customer to the department," said the official. "One who pays more tax should have some additional facilities."

Another category of taxpayers comprises those who will get better treatment but are prone to evasion and therefore need to be monitored through data feeds. A third category is of individual taxpayers in the Rs 5-10 lakh annual pay bracket. They will get completely non-intrusive service with an emphasis on e-filing, e-assessment and escrutiny, said the official.

As part of the plan, the income tax department is also working on jurisdiction-free assessment, which means the officer concerned doesn't have to be located in the same area as the taxpayer. It is also moving to an environment in which all communication between the department and the taxpayer will be electronic.

"All these changes will require amendment to the income tax law that can be taken up in the next budget," the official said. Some of these changes have been already presented to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and he has backed a taxpayerfriendly, non-adversarial regime, the official said.
"There is a dire need to have a resolution mechanism at the first stage of the dispute itself, wherein tax payers, especially large tax payers, could discuss with revenue authorities and arrive at a decision/resolution in time," said Vikas Vasal, national leader, tax, Grant Thornton India LLP. "This would go a long way in India bringing in transparency, ease of doing business and will cut down on unnecessary disputes and litigation in the country."

Tax jurisdictions across the globe have adopted different practices to address tax issues and provide guidance to taxpayers, especially large ones, to help facilitate ease of doing business, provide certainty and cut down on costly litigation.

Bridge the Trust Deficit
Building trust between taxpayer and the tax department makes eminent sense, and is in sync with the recommendations of the Shome panel. The goal should be to minimise taxpayer interface. Now, the goods and services tax is creating multiple audit trails that will help widen and unify the tax base. What India really needs is a modern networked tax administration that is equipped to use big data analytics.


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Commercial rental income beyond Rs 20 lakh to attract GST, says Hasmukh Adhia

Rental income from residential property has been exempt from GST but any earning over Rs 20 lakh annually from renting or leasing for commercial purposes would attract the levy.

Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said that if the house property is rent out for shop or office purpose, no Goods and Service Tax (GST) will be levied up to Rs 20 lakh.

"Rental income received from residential house is exempt. But if you have given your unit to commercial enterprise, then it is taxable if you are getting more than Rs 20 lakh as rent," Adhia said at the GST Master Class.
The taxpayer earning more than the exempted threshold will have to register with the GST Network and pay taxes.

GSTN Chief Executive Prakash Kumar said that as many as 69.32 lakh registered excise, service tax and VAT payers have migrated to the GSTN portal. There are over 80 lakh such assessees in the earlier indirect taxation regime.

Out of the 69.32 lakh, as many as 38.51 lakh have completed the entire registration process and registration certicate is being issued to them.

The remaining 30.8 lakh taxpayers are being sent SMS and emails by GSTN so that they complete the registration process by giving the details of the business like main place of business, additional place of business, promoters details.

Besides, over 4.5 lakh new assessees have registered on the GSTN portal since June 25.

Adhia further said that the facility to amend the details of businesses provided to the GSTN portal at the time of registration will open on July 17. Also, registration for GST practioners will open on the same day.

Besides, cancellation of registration can be done online.
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Launch of Aaykar Setu

Government of India 

Ministry of Finance 

Department of Revenue 

Central Board of Direct Taxes 

New Delhi, 10th July, 2017. 

PRESS RELEASE 

 Launch of Aaykar Setu - Another E-Initiative by CBDT 

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) constantly endeavours to provide better taxpayer services and reduce taxpayer grievances. New schemes and e-initiatives to educate the taxpayers and deliver tax payer services in an effective manner are key to this effort.

As a part of this continuous process, a new tax payer service module ‘Aaykar Setu’, was launched by the Honourable Finance Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley from Delhi today. To enhance mobile access experience, a mobile responsive android version was also released along with the desktop version. Shri Jaitley stressed on the Government’s commitment towards continuously upgrading tax payer services.

The new step is an effort by the Income Tax Department (ITD) to directly communicate with the taxpayers, on a range of multiple informative and useful tax services aimed at providing tax information at their fingertips. The module compiles various tax tools, live chat facility, dynamic updates, and important links to various processes within the Income Tax Department in a single module. The tax payers will also be able to receive regular updates regarding important tax dates, forms and notifications on mobile numbers registered with the ITD.

All taxpayers who wish to receive such SMS alerts are advised to register their mobile numbers in the Aaykar Setu module.

 (Meenakshi J Goswami) 

Commissioner of Income Tax 

(Media and Technical Policy) 

 Official Spokesperson, CBDT.

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