E-filing of tax returns via ATM

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The Income Tax department has launched an ATM-based validation system for filing e-ITRs by taxpayers as part of its measure to enhance the paperless regime of filing the annual IT returns.

“Now, Electronic Verification Code (EVC) can be generated by pre-validating your Automated Teller Machine (ATM) provided by the bank where a taxpayer has an account. While SBI has activated the facility beginning yesterday, other banks will follow soon,” a senior IT official said.

Last month, the department had launched the bank account based validation facility in this regard for those who have not availed internet banking facility. The new facility is available on the official e-filing portal of the department – http://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/ and will work by using the One Time Password verification system as activated by the department last year by using the Aadhaar number.

Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/policy/efiling-of-tax-returns-via-atm/article8693669.ece

Private sector lender Federal Bank to support startups

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Jumping on to the startup bandwagon, Kerala based private sector lender Federal BankBSE -1.38 % is opening incubation centres in Bangalore and Ernakulam exclusively for startups. These would be specialised lounges within Federal Bank branches meant for funding advisory, regulatory support and if required even for direct investment.

“We have a dedicated startup fund worth Rs 25 crore which we would like to use to fund or lend to promising startups. These lounges, named Launchpad, with fast internet connections, support staff from the financial world and advisory mechanisms would be the perfect breeding ground for future entrepreneurs,” said Shyam Srinivasan, managing director, Federal bank.

The lounge would be manned by bank officers who would be capable of dealing with the financial requirements of the startups as well as local specialists who would be able to advise on regulatory issues that entrepreneurs need to handle.

“We are talking to 3 or 4 startups daily. The challenge for a bank is to move away from a conservative credit mind set to a more entrepreneurial mind set and to accept the fact that out of 40 or 50 investments only one might take off. So even we are in the process of understanding how to engage with startups better,” he said.

The bank follows the footsteps of HDFC Bank and Bank of Baroda to integrate their platform with mobile payments application Chillr. The addition that Federal Bank brings to the Chillr app is that they would allow even non Federal Bank users to instantly open a Federal Bank account through a selfie and Aadhar identification number and allow them to receive payments through Chillr.

“This is just another offer in the suite of offerings for the customer. We are in the major discovery process slowly there would be convergence in this field,” said Srinivasan.

Govt to further simplify ITR forms, sets up committee

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The government is looking to further simplify income tax return forms to help taxpayers fill them without seeking help from experts and the revenue department has set up a committee in this regard.

The committee, according to sources, will be headed by a joint secretary level officer and would include chartered accountants and tax experts.

“The tax department is trying to further simplify the return form so that no outside help is needed by those who want to file returns on their own,” a source said.

The effort would be to come out with a simple formula for indexation to help assessees compute capital gains on sale of assets, the source added.

“The Committee would also look into the possibility of reducing the number of pages in the return form,” the source said.

The Income Tax department had in June come out with a simplified tax return form for salaried class. Filers now have to disclose the total number of savings and the current bank accounts held by them at any time during the previous year (excluding dormant accounts).

The form also has space to fill up the IFSC code of the bank and in an additional feature, tax filers have been given an option to indicate their bank accounts in which they would want their refund credited. The ITR also has sought the Aadhaar number of filers.

The tax department had come out with simplified ITR after experts raised objections to the 14 page form which was notified earlier in the year.

The earlier form sought details of bank accounts and foreign visits and following controversy, the Revenue Department announced putting them on hold.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/govt-to-further-simplify-itr-forms-sets-up-committee-115112200147_1.html