Govt extends deadline for filing income tax returns by a month to August 31

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has extended the due date for filing of Income Tax Returns from July 31, 2018, to August 31, 2018, for certain categories of taxpayers.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has extended the due date for filing of Income Tax Returns to August 31, 2018, for categories of taxpayers who were to file their returns by July 31.

The decision comes days ahead of the July 31 deadline, which several groups had requested the government to push to later. 

CBDT had notified the new income tax return forms for assessment year 2018-19 on April 5. Experts said the introduction of new forms was leading to delays in filing of returns.

Further, the CBDT had said non-filing of ITR before the due date from this assessment year would lead to a penalty of Rs 1,000, 5,000 and Rs 10,000, depending on when the returns were filed after the deadline. The fine for taxpayers having income under Rs 5 lakh remained at Rs 1,000.

If you are still unclear in choosing the appropriate ITR for disclosing your income earned during the previous year, here's a quick guide on the various ITR forms.

ITR 1 Sahaj:

Applicable to individuals that are an ordinary resident in India deriving income from salaries, one house property, other sources and having total income upto Rs 50 Lacs.

ITR 2:

It is applicable to any individual having total income exceeding Rs. 50 Lacs or having foreign asset/income or having more than one residential house property or income from capital gain or HUF.

ITR-3:

It is applicable to individuals and HUFs deriving income from profits and gains from business or profession along-with any income from salaries or house property or capital gains or other sources.

ITR-4 SUGAM:

It is for resident taxpayers (Individual, HUF, Firm other than LLP), who have opted for presumptive income scheme as laid down under section 44AD, 44ADA and 44AE of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

ITR-5:

This form can be used by a person being a Firm, Limited Liability Partnerships (LLP), AOP/BOI, Private discretionary trust, an Artificial juridical person referred to in section 2(31)(vii), Cooperative Society and Local authority.

ITR-6:

This form is being used by Company, other than a company claiming exemption under section 11 of the Income Tax Act. The ITR also introduces a new Schedule for Ind AS Compliant companies wherein they are required to disclose the balance sheet and P/L account in the same format as prescribed under the Companies Act, 2013

ITR-7:

Required to be filed when individuals including companies fall under section 139(4A) or 139(4B) or 139(4C) or 139(4D) or 139(4E) or 139(4F). This ITR form is basically meant for trusts claiming exemptions u/s 11 of the Act, Political party, Mutual funds, Securitization trust, and other specified assesses.

GST Council Meet Updates: Big Rate Cuts For Consumer Durables, Paints And Cosmetics; Sanitary Napkins Exempt

Key Tax Rate Changes

Exempt from GST:

• Sanitary pads
• Deities made of stone, marble or wood
• Raakhis, without any precious metals
• Raw material used in brooms
• Commemorative coins circulated by the RBI or government
• Saal leaves
• Fortified milk

From 12 percent to 5 percent:

• Handloom dari
• Fertiliser grade phosphoric acid

From 28 percent to 18 percent:

• Lithium-ion batteries
• Vaccum cleaners
• Food grinders, mixers
• Shavers, hair clippers
• Storage water heaters
• Electric smoothing irons
• Water cooler
• Ice cream freezer
• Refrigerators
• Hand dryes
• Cosmetics
• Perfumes
• Scents
• Paint
• Varnishes

Other changes:

• GST on ethanol sold to oil companies for blending with petrol and diesel reduced to 5 percent from 18 percent earlier
• GST on imported urea reduced to 5 percent
• GST on E-books reduced to 5 percent from 18 percent
• GST for hotels to be charged on the actual price that the customer pays and not on the declared tariffs

A nine-hour long meeting of the GST Council ended with several important decisions – rate cuts, a simplified return filing process, benefit of input credit refund for the textile sector and a benign tax regime for composition dealers, among others.

28 Percent Tax Slab Gets Leaner

The GST Council has reduced the tax rate on over 50 goods, including washing machines, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, paints, ethanol, cosmetics, sanitary napkins.

The changes in tax rate would come into effect from July 27, 2018, said a press release issued by the Ministry of Finance.

The GST Council has also decided to levy GST on transaction value of hotel rooms instead of declared tariffs. Hotels used to levy GST on their declared tariff even when they used to offer discounts to customers.

This is a big relief for the hospitality sector as customers used to protest on GST being levied on a higher tariff rate rather than discounted rates, Manbeer Sandhu, president of Hotel and Restaurant Association of Haryana pointed out.
This will help customers as well since the benefit of GST being applied to a discounted rate will be passed on to them.

Manbeer Sandhu, President, Hotel and Restaurant Association of Haryana

While this is positive for consumers and the hotel industry, there’s another related issue that hasn’t been addressed yet, Abhishek Rastogi, partner at law firm Khaitan & Co. told BloombergQuint. Companies spend a considerable amount to avail hotel services and a majority of it is in states where they may not be necessarily registered. This leads to problems on the input tax credit front, Rastogi explained.
Credit availment is a problem in cases where the hotel is located in one state and the taxpayer is registered in another state. The input tax credit is not available in the state where you’re paying the taxes since you’re not registered there. I think that’s the second fundamental problem which arises for companies.
Abhishek Rastogi, Partner, Khaitan & Co.







Textile Sector: GST To Get Less Taxing?

The textile sector will now be eligible for input tax credit refunds. The GST regime for textile industry has been rather strange so far, L Badrinarayan, a partner at Lakshmikumaran & Sreedharan pointed out. For instance, a taxpayer is selling fabric which is taxed at 5 percent but the input for it, let’s say, polyester yarn is taxed at 18 percent. There was an accumulation of credit for such businesses.

Textile companies have been saying that this has been making them uncompetitive in the foreign market. Majority of the textiles are exported from either Pakistan, Bangladesh or India. The minute there is even a 1 percent increase in the cost of textile, the exports move from India to Pakistan and Bangladesh. 
L Badrinarayan, Partner, Lakshmikumaran & Sreedharan 

The only hitch here is that it is going to be prospective and so whatever textile credit has accumulated in the books of companies will lapse, Badrinarayan added.

For this measure to be meaningful, the refunds should come on time or else the textile sector – that largely consists of small businesses - will continue to face cash flow issues, Chandrakant Salunkhe, the president at the SME Chamber of India said.

Return Filing: Sahaj & Sugam

After months of deliberation, the Council has agreed on a simplified return filing process... one that is also narrower in its applicability.

Small taxpayers – with a turnover of up to Rs 5 crore – can now opt for filing quarterly returns. However, they will have to pay GST on a monthly basis. Simplified returns for small taxpayers have been called Sahaj and Sugam and will need less information compared to regular GST returns. 93 percent of the taxpayers have a turnover of less than Rs 5 crore and these taxpayers would benefit substantially from the simplification measures, a media note by the Finance Ministry said.

Those with a turnover above Rs 5 crore will benefit as well, it added.

The return form will have two main tables – one for reporting outward supplies and one for availing input tax credit based on invoices uploaded by the supplier. Invoices can be uploaded continuously by the seller and can be continuously viewed and locked by the buyer for availing input tax credit. This process would ensure that very large part of the return is automatically filled based on the invoices uploaded by the buyer and the seller. The process would be ‘Upload-Lock-Pay’ for most tax payers.

The new return design will also provide the option to amend the invoice, the release pointed out. An amendment can be made by filing an amendment return. Payment would be allowed to be made through the amendment return as it will help save interest liability for the taxpayers, the release added.

This will reduce compliance, but a difference in timing of filing of returns for assessees with a turnover above and below Rs 5 crore may impact timing of the availment of credit, Bipin Sapra, an indirect tax expert at EY India, said in an emailed statement.

Benign Regime For Composition Dealers

Currently, taxpayers with an annual turnover below Rs 1 crore can avail of the composition scheme. Under this scheme, taxpayers have to pay a flat GST rate but the benefit of claiming input credit is not available.

The Council has now increased the threshold for this scheme to Rs 1.5 crore. Taxpayers under composition scheme will also be allowed to supply services, whose value should not exceed 10 percent of turnover in the preceding financial year, or Rs 5 lakh, whichever is higher. These services cannot be in the restaurant space, as restaurant owners cannot avail of composition scheme.

The Council also decided to defer the implementation of the reverse charge mechanism to September next year. 

Under reverse charge, the receiver of goods has to pay GST instead of the supplier.

The next meeting of the GST Council will be on August 4, and will focus on issues and problems faced by medium and small scale industries.

50 LAKH FREE INSURANCE WITH MUTUAL FUND SIP

50 LAKH FREE INSURANCE WITH MUTUAL FUND SIP

Do you know your mutual fund investment can get free life insurance cover as well Though investing in equity through mutual funds via Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) is getting pace of late, mutual fund houses have been vary of the investor discontinuing the SIP when the market corrects or is volatile. So to ensure that the investors do not discontinue SIP, the mutual funds are offering free life insurance cover in case SIP is not discontinued. Presently three mutual funds houses offer it. ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund offers it as “SIP Plus”, Reliance Mutual Fund offers it as “SIP Insure” and Aditya Birla Mutual fund as “Century SIP”. The life insurance cover is linked with to value and tenure of SIP. It is free as the cost of group life insurance is borne by asset management company. Let us understand how it works:

Who is eligible for this benefit? 

Anyone who has completed 18 years and have not completed 51 years can enroll with theses mutual fund houses to avail this. Moreover for availing this benefit, you have to specifically opt for the scheme. This benefits of free life insurance is available only on selected schemes as notified from time to time only. Reliance however offers this facility on all the equity and hybrid schemes. 

How much insurance is available? 

For all three products, insurance is 10 times of the monthly SIP for first 12 months, it goes up to 50 times for second year for all three products but it is 120 times after the third year for Reliance and 100 times for Aditya Birla and ICICI. In terms of absolute amount the life insurance cover available is capped at Rs. 21 lakhs for Reliance (increased to Rs. 50 lakhs from 1st June 2018), Rs. 25 lakhs for Aditya Birla and a higher of 50 lakhs for ICICI. So though in term of number of times of monthly SIP amount, the insurance cover for Reliance is higher but in absolute monetary terms ICICI/Reliance offers almost the double than that offered by Aditya Birla. The amount of insurance is available for all the schemes taken together under same or different folio for the same first holder. The insurance is available for the first holder only and not for all the joint holder under the scheme. 

When the insurance begins and ceases 

The insurance cover commences after a waiting period of 45 days but for accident there is no waiting period and it becomes available the moment the first SIP is debited. Like normal life insurance policy the death due to suicide is covered after one year only 

The insurance cover ceases once you complete the age of 55 years for Reliance and ICICI but for Aditya Birla it continues till 60 years. The insurance cover also ceases as soon as the tenure of the SIP is over so the insurance cover is available as long as the SIP continues and discontinues once the SIP discontinues. Even if you redeem money partly or fully out of the money invested during the SIP period, the insurance cover ceases immediately. The insurance also ceases in case SIP is returned unpaid for specified number of consecutive months which vary from fund house to fund house. For ICICI it is five consecutive occasions. In case of Reliance and Aditya Birla the insurance cover will cease if the SIP is not paid on four consecutive or different occasions. 

In case the SIP is stopped after 3 years the insurance does not cease and continues subject to maximum amount available under the scheme. However if the SIP is stopped before completion of thee years the insurance cover ceases immediately. 

Tenure of the SIP 

For being eligible under the scheme the tenure of SIP has to be specified in advance and has to be minimum of thee years but generally there are no restrictions on SIP continuing beyond 55 years when the insurance cover ceases. 

Exit load 

In case of ICICI and Reliance if the investor redeems the investments before one year the regular exit load, as applicable to the scheme, is charged if one exits before one year. However in case of Century SIP there are steep exit load of 2% if the units invested under this benefit are redeemed within one year and 1% for investments redeemed after one year but before three years. 

Benefit of the product 

Since a certain sum as expressed in terms of number of times of amount of your monthly SIP is covered under these products, you are assured that in case some thing happens to you during the SIP period, the goal for which the investments is being made will not get jeopardised as in case of premature death, though corpus of the fund invested by you may not be sufficient but the same would be available through the insurance claim. 

Though the insurance cover is free but your choice of fund house or scheme should not be dictated by this benefit only and the choice should primarily be based on the potential of performance of the scheme in which you wish to invest. However in case you have equally performing schemes from all the three funds houses, you should opt for schemes of ICICI prudential or Reliance due to higher life insurance cover and lower exit load offered by it. If the Reliance has better performing shecme, it even scores over even ICICI in terms of number of times of your monthly SIP, the life insurance cover is available.