CBDT clarification for Aadhar PAN compulsion

PRESS RELEASE New Delhi,10th June, 2017.

SUPREME COURT JUDGEMENT ON AADHAR - PAN LINKAGE

1.Honourable Supreme Court in its landmark judgement has upheld section 139AA of the Income Tax Act as constitutionally valid which required quoting of the Aadhaar number in applying for PAN as well as or filing of income tax returns.

2.The Court also held that the “Parliament was fully competent to enact Section 139AA of the Act and its authority to make this law was not diluted by the orders of this Court.”Therefore, no violation of the earlier Supreme Court orders were found in enacting the provision.

3.The Court has also held that section 139AA of the Act is not discriminatory nor it offends equality clause enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution.

4.Section 139AA is also not violative of Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution in so far as it mandates giving of Aadhaar number for applying PAN and in the income tax returns and linking PAN with Aadhaar number.

5.Section 39AA(1) of the IncomeTax Act as introduced by the Finance Act, 017 provides for mandatory quoting of Aadhaar/Enrolment ID of adhaar application form, for filing of return of income and for making an application for allotment of PAN with effect from 1stJuly, 2017.

6.Section 139AA(2) of the Income Tax Act provides that every person who has been allotted PAN as on the 1stday of July, 2017, and who is eligible to obtain Aadhaar, shall intimate his Aadhaar on or before a date to be notified by the Central Government. The proviso to section 39AA(2) provides that in case of non-intimation of Aadhaar, the PAN allotted to the person shall be deemed to be invalid from a date to be notified by the Central Government.

7.The Supreme Court has upheld section 139AA(1) which mandatorily requires quoting of Aadhaar for new PAN applications as well as for filing of returns.

Income Declaration Scheme 2016 unearths Rs.65250 Crore

The Income Declaration Scheme, 2016 came into effect from 1st June, 2016. It provided an opportunity to persons who had not paid full taxes in the past to come forward and declare their domestic undisclosed income and assets. Declarations could be made online as well in printed copies of the prescribed form up to midnight on 30th September, 2016. In order to facilitate the taxpayers and to spread awareness about the Scheme, the CBDT issued a number of FAQs to address various queries received. 
Major issues clarified included manner of declaration of fictitious liability, allowance of cost indexation and holding period benefit for registered immovable property, sanctity of valuation report etc. Difficulties with respect to payment of taxes in a short span were removed by permitting payment of tax in 3 instalments, the last being in September 2017. Absolute confidentiality of the declarations made was promised under the scheme to reassure the declarants. An appeal was made by the Honourable Prime Minister of India to the general public to come clean on taxes due. The FM personally addressed stakeholders at many stations. 

Finance Minister conveys Government’s Appreciation to tax payers for their contribution towards Nation building

Finance Minister conveys Government’s Appreciation to tax payers for their contribution towards Nation building. 

The Government acknowledges the contribution of individual tax payers in paying taxes within the prescribed time and prompt filing of Income Tax Returns. 
The Honourable Finance Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley today handed over certificates of appreciation issued by CBDT honoring select tax payers for such contribution. While it is widely acknowledged that the Nation meets its obligations towards spending in various social sector and welfare schemes and infrastructure development out of revenues mobilized through tax payments by millions of honest tax payers, this step marks the first effort by the Government to directly communicate to the tax payer its appreciation for that contribution.

CBDT will be sending out such certificates of appreciation to individual tax payers by e-mail in various categories on the basis of the level of taxes paid by them for the current Assessment Year 2016-17 where taxes have been paid in full and tax payers have no outstanding tax liabilities and where the return is e-filed within the prescribed due date. The tax payers may display these certificates in their homes / offices. 
The categories for individual taxpayers and the number of certificates being issued in the first round are: 
i. Platinum : Tax contributed Rs. 1 Crore and above 
ii. Gold : Tax contributed Rs. 50Lakh to Rs. 1 Crore 
iii. Silver : Tax contributed Rs. 10Lakh to Rs.50 Lakh 
iv. Bronze : Tax contributed Rs. 1Lakh to Rs.10 Lakh 

The CBDT urges taxpayers to e-file their returns in time and verify their return by submitting the Electronic Verification Code online or sending their ITR-V within the 120 day period so that they can be also acknowledged for their contribution. The Department is committed to continuous improvement of taxpayer services and seeks the cooperation of all taxpayers in contributing their fair share of taxes voluntarily.

CBDT Extends due date for filing of Income Tax Returns to 17.10.2016

The due date for filing of Income tax returns by tax payers whose accounts are
required to be audited under the Income Tax Act is the 30th September of the
following year. The tax payers whose business receipts exceed Rupees One Crore or professional receipts exceed Rupees twenty-five Lakh during the previous year
2015-16 are required to file an Income Tax return accompanied by an audit report
by the above mentioned due date.
 
However, taking into consideration that the last date for making declarations
under the Income Declaration Scheme 2016 is also 30th September, 2016, the
Central Board of Direct Taxes has decided to extend the last date for such returns which were due on 30th September, 2016 to 17th October, 2016 in order to remove
inconvenience and to facilitate ease of compliance.

 - CBDT Press Release

The Income Declaration Scheme, 2016- Instructions by RBI to banks to accept cash deposits

The Income Declaration Scheme, 2016 provides an opportunity to persons who have not paid full taxes in the past to come forward and declare their undisclosed income and assets. The Scheme has come into effect from 1.6.2016 and is open for declarations upto 30.9.2016. In respect of the issue of deposit of cash declared under the Scheme, the Central Board of Direct Taxes vide Circular No.29 of 2016 dated 18.8.2016 clarified that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been requested to issue instructions to banks to allow payment of tax under the Scheme in cash and to allow deposit of cash over the counter.
 
The RBI has vide its circular dated 08.09.2016 instructed the banks to invariably accept cash deposits from all the declarants under the Scheme and to accept cash deposits, irrespective of amount, over the counters, for making payment under the Scheme through challan ITNS-286. The relevant circular of RBI is available on the departmental website
www.incometaxindia.gov.in

 - CBDT Press Release

Direct Tax Collections up to August, 2016 show an Increase of 15.03%

The figures for direct tax collections up to August, 2016 show that net revenue
collections are at Rs. 1.89 lakh crore which is 15.03% more than the net collections for the corresponding period last year. Till August 2016, 22.30% of the Budget Estimates of direct taxes for Financial Year 2016-17 has been achieved.
 
As regards the growth rates for Corporate Income Tax (CIT) and Personal
Income Tax (PIT), in terms of gross revenue collections, the growth rate under CIT is 11.55% while that under PIT (including STT etc.) is 24.06%. However, after
adjusting for refunds, the net growth in CIT collections is (-)1.89% while that in PIT collections is 31.76%. Refunds amounting to Rs. 77,080 crore have been issued during April-August, 2016, which is 22.18% higher than the refunds issued during the corresponding period last year.
 - CBDT Press Release

Paperless application of PAN and TAN introduced

Ease of Doing Business – Paperless PAN & TAN application process.
 
For fast tracking the allotment of PAN and TAN to company applicants,
Digital Signature Certificate(DSC) based application procedure has been
introduced on the portals of PAN service providers M/s NSDL eGov and M/s
UTIITSL. Under the new process PAN and TAN will be allotted within one
day after completion of valid on-line application.

Similarly, a new Aadhaar e-Signature based application process for
Individual PAN applicants has been made available on the portals of PAN
service providers M/s NSDL eGov.

The URL links for the above applications are available in ‘important
links’ on the homepage of the departmental website ‘incometaxindia.gov.in’.
Introduction of Aadhaar based e-Signature through M/s NSDL eGov in
PAN application not only ensures paperless hassle free PAN application process
but also seeding of Aadhaar in PAN which will curb the problem of duplicate
PAN to a great extent.

Increase in Efiling of Income tax Returns

Surging growth in Electronic filing of Income Tax Returns for F.Y. 16-17

 The facility of e-verification of IT returns has been used by over 75.3 Lakh taxpayers till 5th August, 2016 as compared to 32.95 Lakh taxpayers last year till 7th September 2015. Of these Aadhar based E- verification was used by 17.68 lakh taxpayers during the current year as against 10.41 lakh taxpayers during the same period in 2015-16. In addition to these, 3.32 Lakh returns were digitally signed. Thus, over 35% of taxpayers have already completed the entire process of Return submission electronically. 

The Department encourages all taxpayers who have submitted their ITRs to use the e-verification as an easy alternative to sending their ITR-V form to CPC, Bengaluru. As on 5th August 2016, over 226.98 Lakh e-returns had been filed in F.Y. 2016-17 as compared to 70.97 Lakh for the same period in FY 2015-16. The growth is over 9.8% even if comparison is made with E-returns filed of 206.55 Lakh as on 7th September 2015 (the extended due date in FY 2015-16) which is for a period more than a month later. 

Taxpayers have appreciated the early processing of Income Tax Returns by CPC Bangalore last year. Keeping the same momentum, the CPC Bengaluru has already issued over 54.35 Lakh refunds totaling to Rs 14,332 Cr which includes 20.81 Lakh refunds for AY 2016-17 (current year returns) totaling to Rs 2,922 Cr till 5th August 2016. 

The Department is committed to continuous improvement of taxpayer services and seeks the cooperation of all taxpayers in contributing their fair share of taxes voluntarily.

Paperless Assessment extended to 2 more cities

Paperless assessment/ e-mail based assessment on a pilot basis was commenced in the financial year 2015-16 in non-corporate charges of five cities i.e. Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai. The e-mail based assessment scheme has now been extended to two more cities, namely Hyderabad and Kolkata during the current financial year. 

It shall now be open for all the taxpayers assessed in these seven cities, whose cases have been selected under scrutiny to opt for being scrutinized under the e-mail based paperless assessment proceedings by giving their consent. 

However, in case of practical difficulties in submission of scanned copies of voluminous documents through e-mail, the documents could be received by the assessing officer in physical form after recording reasons for the same. All the taxpayers of the aforesaid seven cities, whose cases are picked up for scrutiny, may convey their consent to their respective Assessing Officers in order to avail the facility of e-mail based paperless assessment proceedings.
CBDT Press Release

Income Tax Returns Statistics for FY 2011-12 released by Department

The Statistical data relating to filing of Income Tax Returns for FY 2011-12 is released by Income Tax Department. The numbers will help to analyse and understand more of the Income Tax Return filing trend for the year.

I) Income Tax Returns declaring 'Salary Income':


The Highest number of Returns are filed by Persons having Salary Income between Rs.5.5 lacs to 9.5 lacs.