The Finance Bill 2018 has reintroduced the taxation of Long-term capital gains (LTCG) on stocks. The CBDT has issued a detailed FAQ dated 4th February 2018 in which it has addressed numerous questions relating to the method for calculation of long-term capital gains, the cost of acquisition, the fair market value, availability of inflation index, TDS obligations etc. The CBDT has also clarified the law applicable to capital gains earned by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs)

In an article titled “Grandfather clause in LTCG: Why it may be time to call up your tax lawyer”, it was pointed out that the grandfathering of past returns promised by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his budget speech is missing from the fine print of the bill in the context of foreign investors. The drafting error created an uproar amongst taxpayers at the shoddy drafting of the Finance Bill 2018.

The Finance Bill 2018, as introduced in Parliament today, is available for download. There are several important amendments proposed by the Finance Bill 2018 to the Income-tax Act, 1961, including the taxation of long-term capital gains (LTCG) at 10%. As per the Finance Bill 2018, the long term capital gains on investments in equities exceeding Rs 1 lakh will be taxed at 10% without allowing benefit of indexation. The gains made till January 31 will be grandfathered

A Chartered Accountant (CA) in Bengaluru developed an ingenious plan to dupe the income-tax department. He induced employees of reputed companies such as IBM, Vodafone, Saplabs, Biocon, Infosys, ICICI Bank, CISCO, Thomson Reuters etc to file revised returns of income and make fraudulent claim for refunds of tax

We deeply regret to inform that Shri Dinesh M. Vyas, Senior Advocate and Past President of the ITAT Bar Association, passed away on 23rd January, 2018. A condolence prayer meeting will be held at KC College Auditorium on 25th January 2018 between 5pm to 7pm.

The CBDT has made it clear that it will no longer tolerate defiance of the law by unscrupulous taxpayers. Offenders will be dealt with harshly and sent to Jail for non-compliance. In the latest development, a person who deducted TDS but did not pay it over to the Government has been sent to Tihar Jail

The CBDT has vide Order No. 14 of 2018 dated 18th January 2018 promoted officers to the grade of Chief Commissioner of Income-tax (then HAG) in the pay scale of Rs. 67,000 – 79,000 (pre-revised) against the vacancy year 2013-14

The CBDT has apparently directed the officials of the income-tax department to “go into overdrive” in the next three months while making recovery of tax. The officials have been warned that their performance is being “monitored at the highest level“. An official confirmed that there will be searches, surveys, information verification etc, and many doors will be knocked even if the respective targets are met

The Finance Ministry has revealed that it has launched aggressive prosecution against wilful attempt to evade tax or payment of any tax; wilful failure in filing returns of income; false statement in verification and failure to deposit the tax deducted/collected at source etc. It is made clear that the department will carry forward the drive against tax evasion in future as well

Due to intensive efforts undertaken by the Income Tax Department, provisional attachment has been made in more than 900 cases of properties under the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act (the ‘Benami Act’), which came into force w.e.f 1st November, 2016. These attachments include plots of land, flats, shops, jewellery, vehicles, deposits in bank accounts, fixed deposits etc. The value of properties under attachment is more than Rs. 3,500 crore including immovable properties of more than Rs. 2,900 crore