Government releases compliance schedule to ensure MSME payments

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With a spate of corporate irregularities coming to the fore, the Centre has decided to make disclosure norms more stringent. Specified Companies (Furnishing of information about the payment to micro and small enterprise suppliers)
Every specified company shall file in MSME Form I details of all outstanding dues to Micro or small enterprises suppliers (whose payment is due or not paid within 46 days) dealing with MSME shall mandatorily file a return with MCA in e-form MSME-1.

Directors of companies delaying payments for supplies made by small businesses will face imprisonment up to six months or pay fines between Rs 25,000 and Rs 3,00,000.

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has notified new guidelines to address the concerns of small businesses over delayed payments that not only makes it mandatory for all companies to file half yearly returns detailing outstanding dues to MSME suppliers but also assign reasons if such delays are for more than 45 days.

The new rules have been implemented to put pressure on companies to pay up.

Under the proposed changes, every private and public company will mandatorily file “MSME FORM I” with the the Registrar of Companies (RoC) by February 22 with details of all outstanding dues to MSME suppliers existing on the date of notification of rules on January 22.

In addition, all entities will also have to file a return as per MSME Form I by October 31 for the period from April to September and by April 30 for the period from October to March.

If there are any delays in payments, it has to be mentioned in the returns with the MCA reserving the right to penalise defaulting entities.

In order to ensure adherence to the new rules, MCA has also proposed a fine of up to Rs 25,000 on companies defaulting in filing the information or delaying payments.

The fines for directors, chief financial officer and company secretary of a defaulting company has been specified at not less than Rs 25,000 up to Rs 3,00,000 per person with provision also for imprisonment up to six months.

The new rules will be applicable for every company that received goods or services ‘from’ MSME segment for which payment is due for 45 days or more.

The companies that have no outstanding payments to MSMEs or such outstanding payments are not for more than 45 days are not required to file details in the specified form.

For the purpose of new rules, MSMEs are defined on the basis of capital investment made in plant and machinery, excluding investments in land and building.

Manufacturing units having investment below Rs 25 lakh were termed Micro, those between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 5 crore termed as Small and from Rs 5 crore to Rs 10 crore as Medium.

Similarly, for Service units, corresponding investment thresholds were upto Rs 10 lakh Micro, between Rs 10 lakh to Rs 2 crore Small and between Rs 2 crore to Rs 5 crore Medium.

Source: Business Standard

Auditors barred from putting a value on companies they are auditing

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An income tax tribunal has barred auditors from issuing valuation certificates to the companies they are auditing. This is set to impact several tax disputes around valuations in companies including angel tax disputes involving start-ups.

The Bangalore Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) said that auditors of a company cannot double up as accountants especially in situations while dealing with “share valuation for the purpose of excess share-premium taxability.”

In several cases the income tax department has disputed valuations of companies around the time of investments.

The ITAT ruling came in a case where the tax department had challenged valuation of a company by its auditor.

In most cases, valuations of startups were challenged by the tax department, leading to “angel tax.” The angel tax controversy surrounds the valuations during various rounds of startup funding. In several cases, the revenues at startups kept reducing or remained stagnant, but their valuations increased. The taxman is questioning the premiums paid by the investors and wants to categorise them as income that would be taxable at 30%. In most cases, the investments made by angel investors, venture capital funds or any other investor have been challenged by the taxman.

Many accountants and valuers are already facing heat from the tax department. ET had, on December 25, reported that the tax department has started issuing show-cause notices to valuation experts, questioning the premiums several startups fetched during their investments rounds.

Valuation experts, however, say that they merely projected and calculated future growth, using the facts and figures provided by the startups. Many tax experts point out that the tax department’s approach to the fair value as a benchmark for calculating premiums may not be accurate in the context of startups.

Income tax officers claim that the scrutiny on startups is mainly due to concerns that black money may have changed hands.

ITAT Ruling

CBDT warns Cash Transactions above Permissible Limits

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CBDT warns Cash Transactions above Permissible Limits

With a view to promoting cashless transactions, the Central Board of Direct Taxes ( CBDT ) has issued an advisory on its official website regarding cash transactions over and above the prescribed limits specified under the law.

 

The advisory issued by the Board remind the taxpayers to not accept cash of two lakh or more in aggregate from a single person in a day or for one or more transactions relating to one event or occasion.

 

One of the major steps introduced by the Government after the demonetization was to restrict cash transaction above Rs. 2 lakh rupees.

 

Under the Finance Act, 2017, the amounts in excess of Rs. 20,000 or more shall be received or repaid in cash for transfer of Immovable Property and amount more than Rs. 10,000/- in cash relating to the expenditure of business/profession was also banned.

 

Further, amount in excess of Rs. 2,000/- in cash cannot be donated to a registered trust /political party.

 

The department further reminded that the contravention may result in the levy of tax/ penalty.

 

The CBDT advisory said that any payment made in cash on account of the premium on health insurance facilities is not allowable as a deduction under section 80D of the Income Tax Act.

 

“Any information regarding black money including information about undisclosed income/ assets (both in India as well as abroad) and Benami transactions can be given to the jurisdictional Director General/ Pr. General of Income Tax (Investigation),” it said.

 

The CBDT has recently announced a new scheme called Income Tax Informants Rewards Scheme 2018 through which the department will reward up to 5 crore rupees to informants.

 

The scheme regulates grant and payment of reward to a person who is an informant under this scheme.

 

Also, the Benami Transactions Informants Reward Scheme 2018 has been announced for regulating grant for informants giving information relating to benami property actionable under Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988, as amended by Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016.

As SEBI reforms startup listing, SMEs must ensure funds are not misused

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SME ExchangeAmid SEBI banning as many as 239 entities for alleged money laundering, taxation consultancy PwC has called for a three-year locking-in for the entire pre-listing capital held by promoters to curb tax evasion and other illegal activities through market platforms.

The agency has called for imposing a similar lock-in even for preferential allotments, as prescribed under the capital and disclosure requirement (ICDR) norms so that only serious investors access the market. The PwC report is part of a BSE-mandated review of SME listing process.

The premier bourse last week said that 100 entities were trading on its SME platform. The regulator Securities and Exchange Board (SEBI) on June 29 banned four publicly traded SMEs and 235 other related entities for alledgely misusing the exchange’s platform for money laundering and tax evasion.

The SEBI, in an interim order alleged that these entities made Rs 614 crore in illegal gains through suspected money laundering and tax evasion activities. The four companies banned are EcoFriendly Food Processing Park, Esteem Bio Organic Food Processing, Channel Nine Entertainment and HPC Biosciences. These are traded on the BSE SME Platform.

“The institutional trading platform (ITP) could be utilised as a tool for tax planning by staying invested in an SME for a period more than 12 months and exiting at a very high stock price thereby making huge gains with no tax liability,” PwC said in the report.

Accordingly, the report has suggested that the entire pre-listing capital held by promoters should be locked in for three years as “such restrictive conditions would discourage people from accessing the platform only for tax planning”. The BSE had launched ITP for its SME platform to facilitate start-ups and other SMEs to list without the mandatory IPO process which is time-consuming and capital intensive that small companies can hardly afford.

According to PTI, in addition to allowing SMEs and start-up companies to raise capital, the BSE SME platrfom also provides easier entry and exit options for informed investors like angel investors, venture capitalists and private equity players, apart from offering better visibility and wider investor base and tax benefits to long-term investors.

Meanwhile, the report also called for a reduction in trading lot size and shorter interval for review of lot size after many SMEs, merchant bankers and market-makers cited this as a disincentive for entering the market. The report said market participants want the timeframe to review the lot size to be reduced from the current six months and lower the trading lot requirement of Rs 1 lakh to attract retail investors to the segment.

As SEBI continues to make business easier, it is important SMEs do not eye illegal gains through suspected money laundering and tax evasion activities.

 

SEBI calls for stringent laws against erring auditors, valuers

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SEBI has proposed giving the board of directors of the company the authority to take appropriate action after conducting an investigation against the individual or firm that violates any regulations or submits a false certificate or report.

India’s capital market regulator has proposed amendments to tighten laws governing auditors and other third-party individuals hired by listed companies for auditing financial results, among other things.

The Kotak Committee, formed to come up with proposals for improving corporate governance, last year recommended that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) should have clear powers to act against auditors and other third-party individuals or firms with statutory duties under the securities law.

Auditing lapses have caused several frauds to go unnoticed for years and the capital market regulator has had no direct control on the auditing firms.

SEBI has proposed giving the board of directors of the company the authority to take appropriate action after conducting an investigation against the individual or firm that violates any regulations or submits a false certificate or report.

The proposed changes come months after Punjab National Bank, India’s second largest state-run lender, stunned markets after uncovering a $2 billion loan fraud that had gone undetected for years.

Merchant bankers, credit rating agencies, custodians, among others, are registered and regulated by SEBI but chartered accountants, company secretaries, valuers and monitoring agencies do not come under any direct regulators.

The amendments would mean auditors must ensure certificates or reports issued by them are true in all material respects and they must exercise all due care, skill and diligence with respect to all processes involved in issuance of the report or certificate.

The auditors would be responsible to report in writing to the audit committee of the listed company or the compliance officer on any violation of the securities law they noticed.

In January, SEBI barred Price Waterhouse from auditing listed companies in India for two years after an investigation into a nearly decade-old accounting fraud case in a software services company that became India’s biggest corporate scandal.

SEBI has sought feedback and comments on the draft regulations over the next 30 days.

 

Link: Business Today

ICAI UDIN aims to address concerns of CAs with respect to forgery and fake use of name by Non CAs.

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ICAI have launched Unique Document Identification Number (UDIN) facility which is a unique number, which will be generated by the system for every document certified/ attested by a Chartered Accountant and registered with the UDIN portal available at https://udin.icai.org/ with effect from 1st July 2018.

It has been noticed that financial statements and documents were being certified/attested by third persons, in lieu of Chartered Accountants. As these statements are being relied upon by the authorities as true statements and certificates, UDIN can be generated by a practicing CA by registering his/her documents/ certificates on UDIN Portal for verification.

A practicing Chartered Accountant can generate a UDIN for certificate/ document attested by him either in individual capacity or as a partner.

At present, this facility is recommendatory. But ICAI is mulling to make the same compulsory in near future, so as to curb the menace of fake or forged documents.

No change is possible in the data already registered by a Chartered Accountant in the online system. Therefore, members are requested to thoroughly check the details in preview option before submission of their application.

Information filled in can be edited/ modified any number of times before the submission. But once it is submitted, it cannot be edited.

The UDIN once generated can be withdrawn or cancelled with narration. Hence if any user search for this UDIN, appropriate narration indicated by Member with the date of revoke will be displayed for reference.

 

 

Link: UDIN for Practicing CAs

I-T department bars CAs from valuing shares of closely held firms

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The income tax (I-T) has barred all Chartered Accountants (CAs) from valuing shares of closely-held companies.

Earlier, the fair market value of unlisted equity shares was calculated at the option of the company on either the book value on the valuation date or by the discounted cash flow method. Calculated by a merchant banker or a CA.

However, the Central Board of Direct Taxes has removed the CAs from the list of authorised professionals in this regard. From Thursday, only a merchant banker may do this. This change brings this provision at par with Rule 3 of the I-T Act, which says only a merchant banker may calculate the value of unlisted shares issued under Employee Stock Ownership schemes.

Interestingly valuation of shares may still be done by CAs under the Companies Act.

So, unlisted shares or unlisted companies may be sold or valued by a CA’s valuation but, for I-T purposes, it will require a merchant banker’s valuation report.

It is expected that the government is considering a qualifying course for valuation; only those who clear it may do valuation.

Source: Business Standard