The Ministry of Finance has released a power-point presentation on 13.07.2012 explaining the entire concept of service-tax and the changes made thereto by the Finance Act 2012 in a simple and easy-to-understand format. The presentation will be useful for all tax professionals

The Prime Minister has approved the constitution of an Expert Committee on GAAR to undertake stakeholder consultations and finalise the guidelines for GAAR. This committee would manage the consultation process and finalise the draft GAAR Guidelines

Vide letter dated 11.07.2012, the CBDT has released a list of Chief Commissioners of Income-tax who have been selected for “Advanced Mid-Career Training Programme” which entails a 3 weeks in Bangalore and 2 weeks in the USA

In case the income on which tax has been deducted at source is assessable in the hands of a person other than the deductee, the deductee must file a declaration with the deductor that credit for the TDS shall be given to the other person and not to the deductee. The declaration filed by the deductee must contain the name, address, Permanent Account Number of the person to whom credit is to be given and reasons for giving credit to such person. The deductor must, in the TDS statement, report the tax deduction in the name of such other person and also issue the TDS certificate in the name of the person in whose name credit is shown in the TDS statement

Vide Order No. 6/FT&TR/2012 dated 10.07.2012, the CBDT has constituted the Dispute Resolution Panel at Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Hyderbad, Bangalore & Chennai

The Australian Tax Office has issued a comprehensive guide explaining what constitutes a tax avoidance scheme. It is pointed out that a tax planning arrangement that goes beyond the policy intent of the law and involve deliberate approaches to exploit the tax system is a tax avoidance scheme. It is emphasized that these schemes are not limited to the ‘too good to be true’ type of arrangement but can be more sophisticated than many people realise. It is cautioned that because some tax schemes are very cleverly dressed up as seemingly legitimate arrangements, it’s important to be able to recognise them. Examples are given of typical “tax avoidance schemes” which fall foul of the law

Vide Office Order dated 02.07.2012, the Director General of Income-tax has ordered the transfers and postings of several officers in the cadre of Assistant/ Deputy Directors of Income-tax under various directorates of International Taxation & Transfer

The two successive notifications issued – one providing for “reverse charge” and the other granting an “exemption” – has created confusion amongst the legal fraternity and their clientele. To resolve the confusion, CA Rajkamal Shah, a well known expert in the field, has provided the following clarification

CBDT has issued notification S.O. 626(E), dated 28th March 2012 vide which e-Filing has been made compulsory for Assessment Year 2012-13 onwards for

The Government of India has issued a detailed letter dated 28.06.2012 by which a scheme for removal of “dead wood” amongst government servants has been formulated. The letter points out that a few members of the All-India Services do become mere passengers in their post. They become either stale or listless; they do not exhibit any creativity or innovativeness; and they do not achieve results. This results in the operation of the “Peter Principle” (every man rises to the level of his incompetence from where he can go no higher) and one must guard against this says the letter. The scheme provides for the compulsory retirement of such employees so the cost on the exchequer is saved