CBDT Defers Requirement of Registration of Charitable, Religious Trusts by 4 Months Till October 1

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Earlier, such registrations/approvals were granted without any specific expiry period unless specifically withdrawn by concerned tax authority. Under the new law introduced by Finance Act 2020 and effective from June 1, 2020, all such registrations/ approvals would now be issued with an expiry period of 5 years.

In  a relief to religious trusts, educational institutions and other  charitable institutions, the income tax department on Friday deferred by  4 months till October 1 the requirement of registration of these  entities.

In  a relief to religious trusts, educational institutions and other  charitable institutions, the income tax department on Friday deferred by  4 months till October 1 the requirement of registration of these  entities.

“In  view of the unprecedented humanitarian and economic crisis, the CBDT  has decided that the implementation of new procedure for approval/  registration/notification of certain entities shall be deferred to 1st  October, 2020,” an official statement said.

Finance Act 2020 prescribed substantial changes in law pertaining to registration/approval of trusts and charitable institutions, whose income are exempt under section 10(23C), Section 11 or for the purpose of Section 80-G of the Act for tax deductible donations.

Earlier, such registrations/approvals were granted without any specific expiry period unless specifically withdrawn by concerned tax authority.

Under the new law introduced by Finance Act 2020 and effective from June 1, 2020, all such registrations/ approvals would now be issued with an expiry period of 5 years.

Further, all trusts/charitable institutions already having approval or registration were also supposed to file applications for renewal of there registration/approval within 3 months of new law coming into force, i.e. August 31, 2020.

Nangia Andersen Consulting Shailesh Kumar said “in light of COVID-19 outbreak and consequent lockdown, giving relief to the taxpayers, this timeline has been deferred by 4 months. Thus, new law which was supposed to come in effect from 01 June 2020 would now come in effect from 01st October 2020.

“All existing trusts/ charitable institutions would now need to file applications for renewal of their registrations/ approvals by December 31, 2020 instead of earlier August 31, 2020,” he added.

The statement said various representations were received to the finance ministry expressing concerns over the implementation of new procedure from June 1, 2020 due to outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) and consequent lockdown and there have been a number of requests to defer the applicability of new procedure.

“This is a welcome move and provides expected relief in light of genuine hardships created by COVID-19. The entities benefited by this circular would be religious trusts, hospitals, educational institutions or other public charitable institutions created for welfare of public and allows exemption from income tax on account of their activities and charitable purpose,” Kumar added.

Consulting firm AKM Global Tax Partner Amit Maheshwari said, “This is a welcome clarification as in the absence of this extension, it was extremely difficult to comply with these procedures. Several representations had been made on this matter and this is indeed a welcome move.”

TDS on salary and New Income Tax rates: Highlights

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• An employee can change the option of tax structure at the time of filing the ITR
• TDS will get adjusted accordingly

The Central Board of Direct Tax (CBDT) recently came out with a circular, offering clarifications for tax-paying employees on how they can migrate to the new concessional tax regime, which was announced in this year’s Union Budget.

The lower income tax rates under the new regime came to effect from April 1, 2020. However, there were many concerns raised on how employees can choose to opt between the old and regime.

In an April 13 release, the CBDT said employees, who do not have any income from a business, can opt for the new concessional tax slabs or the old regime by intimating the deductor (employer) through a declaration form.

The declaration will also help employers determine whether to deduct TDS as per the old regime or the new concessional rates.

Employees have an option to choose between the new tax regime and the old one. Experts have already said that each employee/taxpayer may opt for any of the two, based on investments.

Coming to the new slabs under the concessional tax regime, those earning Rs 2.5 lakh will have to pay no tax while people earning Rs 2.5-5 lakh will have to pay 5 per cent tax.

Individuals in the income bracket of Rs 7.5-10 lakh will pay 15 per cent tax. People earning over Rs 10-12.5 lakh will be taxed at 20 per cent and those earning Rs 12.5-15 lakh will pay 25 per cent taxes. Finally, people earning above Rs 15 lakh will pay 30 per cent tax under the concessional tax regime.

To sum up the clarifications: 1) Employees,  who do not have any income from a business, can choose to inform their employer through a declaration if they want to opt for the new tax regime for deducting tax at source on TDS from salaries.

However, employees who do not submit any declaration to the employer will continue to be charged under the old regime as earlier.

2) The IT department also clarified that an employee can change the tax structure at the time of filing income tax and that the amount of TDS will be adjusted accordingly.

“The deductor shall compute his total income, and make TDS thereon in accordance with the provisions of section IISBAC of the Act. If such intimation is not made by the employee, the employer shall make TDS without considering the provision of section 11SBAC of the Act,” the CBDT notification said.

3) Another important clarification by the tax department was related to TDS. Once employees make their intention clear to opt for the concessional rates, it will remain the same for TDS purpose for the year without any scope of modification.

“It is also clarified that the intimation so made to the deductor (employee) shall be only for the purposes of TDS during the previous year and cannot be modified during that year,” it said.

“However, the intimation would not amount to exercising an option in terms of sub-section (5) of section 115BAC of the Act and the person shall be required to do so along with the return to be furnished under sub-section (1) of section 139 of the Act for that previous year. Thus, option at the time of filing of return of income under sub-section (1) of Section 139 of the Act could be different from the intimation made by such employee to the employer for that previous year.”

39th GST Council Meeting: Highlights

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Infosys Nilekani gave GST Network presentation to Council.

Council ask Infosys to improve GST Network by July.

Filing to be mandatory for taxpayers over Rs 5cr of annual turnover

Decides to extend deadline for filing of GSTR9 & GSTR9C for FY18-19 till June 30, 2020,

GST Council to continue with 3B till September & defer the new return system.    

Council defers the proposal on taxability of economic surplus of brand owners of alcohol for human consumption,

Reassures states towards payment of compensation dues,

Where Cancellation have been cancelled till March 14, application for cancellation of revocation can be filed till March 31, 2020.

GSTR-1 to be made compulsory only for making B2B supplies, exports & amendments

B2C & non-filers of GSTR-3B to be exempted from filing GSTR-1

Before 10th for turnover greater than Rs 1.5 cr

Before 13th for turnover lesser than Rs 1.5 cr

GSTR-2A to be generated on 14th of every month

Council approves “Know your Supplier” Scheme

Major Reliefs:  

Interest for delay in GST payment will now be charged on next cash liability under Section 50, to be applicable from July 2017              

GST on mobile phones and specified parts was increased from 12% to 18%. This decision was taken to avoid difficulties due to the inverted duty structure.


All types of matches have been rationalised to a single GST rate of 12%. Till now, the handmade ones were taxed at 5% and the rest was taxed at 18%.


GST on Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) service in respect to aircraft was reduced from 18% to 5% with full ITC.

All these rate changes will come into effect from 01 April 2020.

A new scheme called ‘Know your Supplier’ has been introduced so that the taxpayers are informed about the basic details of the suppliers with whom they transact or propose to conduct business.

30 important Key features of GST New Return System:

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First 15 features (1-15 points) as PART-I:-

  1. Supplier can upload the Tax Invoices on real time basis in Anx-1.
  1. Recipient can view his purchase Invoices on near real time basis.
  1. Recipient can also view whether supplier has filed his return or not.
  1. Supplier has to upload the Tax Invoices latest by 10th of Next Month.
  1. However, recipient can claim ITC on missing invoices also subject to certain conditions.
  1. In case, Invoice uploaded by the supplier in Anx-1, but RET-1 is not filed, uploading of invoices in Anx-1 will be treated as self-admitted liability and recovery proceedings will be initiated against the supplier, except in certain specified situations where recipient will be liable to pay.
  1. Recipient has to pay the amount of ITC availed on missing invoices after specified period. (Missing invoices means, invoices not uploaded in Anx-1)
  1. To find out missing invoices, Offline IT Tool will be provided for matching invoices in Anx-2 with invoices in the accounting system of recipient.
  1. Payment of tax shall be discharged full at the time of filing of RET-1 or SAHAJ or SUGAM itself.
  1. In case of Quarterly returns, tax shall be paid on monthly basis.
  1. Recipient can do the following actions on the invoices appearing in Anx-2 (auto drafted Purchase Invoice):

Accept  also called as locking

Reject (eg. Invoice not related to the recipient)

Pending

  1. If no action is taken on a particular invoice, it will be deemed by the system as accepted and ITC will be available against these invoices.
  1. Once invoice is accepted by the recipient, i.e., locked by the recipient, supplier cannot amend those invoices.
  1. Locked Invoice should be unlocked by the recipient only, for making any amendment by the supplier.
  1. Supplier will be able to issue Debit Note or Credit Note on locked invoices also. If credit/debit note is issued against any pending invoice, then system will club the credit/debit note with pending invoice.

Second set of 15 features (16-30 points) as PART-II:-

  1. Missing invoices shall be reported in RET-1 of the current month.
  1. System will calculate the interest automatically. Once the tax and interest is paid, the missing invoice will be clubbed with the monthly return to which it relates.
  1. For amendments, separate Return Form is available.
  1. Maximum 2 amendments return can be filed for any one month.
  1. “NIL” Return can be filed by “SMS”.
  1. Negative liability if any shall be carried forward to next month regular return.
  1. Higher late fee for amendment return if change in liability is more than 10%
  1. Shipping Bill details also should be entered in Anx-1 by the exporters.
  1. If the shipping bill details are not available by the time of filing the return, the same can be entered later on also.
  1. The export data then will be transmitted to ICEGATE portal for cross verification purposes.
  1. Until the facility is ready to pull the data from ICEGATE portal, importers can avail ITC on imports and supplies from SEZ on self-declaration basis.
  1. New concept of suspension of registration will be introduced. From the date of suspension till the date of cancellation, tax payer need not file returns and invoice uploading also will not be allowed.
  1. HSN should be reported at 4 digit level in monthly return.
  1. The tables in the return will be opened based on the profile of the tax payer.
  1. For all return obligations offline utility tools are made available to make filing process as easy as possible.

Budget 2020 highlights: New income tax slabs, DDT gone..

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In the union budget 2020, the following section 115BAC shall be inserted in the Income Tax Act, with effect from the 1st day of April, 2021, with  new income tax slabs and lower rates. These income tax rates are optional and are available to those who are willing to forego some exemptions and some deductions.

Direct Taxes
1. Tax rate reduced for new companies to 22% and for manufacturing companies 15%
2. New simplified personal tax regime for Individual tax payers. The revised slab can be availed if they do not claim deductions and certain exemptions.
For income :
Upto 5,00,000 nil
Rs 5,00,000 -7,50,000: 10%
Rs 7,50,000 – 10,00,000 : 15%
Rs10,00,000 – Rs 12,50,000 20%
Rs 12,50,000- Rs 15,00,000 : 25%
More than Rs 15,00,000 : 30%
3. Companies not required to deduct dividend distribution tax and will be taxed only in the hands of the recipient. Parent company to be allowed deduction of dividend received subsidiary
4. Concessional tax rate of 15% extended to power generation companies
5. Investment made in Infrastructure and other specified sectors
6. Tax rate of 194LC at 5% for interest payment to non resident in respect of money borrowed or bond issued upto June 30,2023 and for 194LD at 5% for interest on borrowing from foreign institutional or qualified investor and municipal bonds
7. Interest payment on bonds listed on exchange by ILFS – 4%
8. Option to Cooperative societies to pay tax at 22% with no exemption or deduction. Exempt from alternative minimum tax
9. Affordable housing tax breaks extended by one year. Additional 1.5 lakhs tax benefit on interest paid on affordable housing loans to March 2021
10. Turnover threshold for tax audit raised to Rs 5 crore from Rs 1 crore
11. 100% tax concession to sovereign wealth funds on investment in infra projects
12. Income from Charitable institutions fully exempt from taxation. Donation to such institution allowed as deduction.
13. Registration of charity institutions to be made completely electronic, donations made to be pre-filled in IT return form to claim exemptions for donations easily.
14. Faceless appeals against tax orders on lines of faceless assessments
15. For tax payers who have appeals pending only disputed tax is to be paid by tax payer and no interest or penalty if the same is paid within March 31,2020. Post March 31,2020 certain amount levied uptill June 30,2020
16. Startup ESOP taxes deferred by 5 years
Other Areas
1. New scheme to provide subordinate debt to MSME
2. Decriminalise some norm violations in Companies Act
3. Increase the bank deposit insurance from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh
4. New system for instant allotment of PAN
5. A new scheme NIRVIK to be launched this year itself for exporters
6. A debt ETF consisting of government securities will be launched.
7. For NBFCs and HFCs, liqduity constraints will be addressed.
8. FPI Limit in corporate bonds will be raised to 15% from 9%.
9. LIC to be listed at stock exchanges

Two important changes in Income tax (TDS/TCS)
— TCS to be collected by seller whose turnover exceeds Rs. 10 cr. In previous year from each buyer on amount exceeding 50 lacs @0.1% for sale of goods.

-TDS rate u/s 194J for technical payment changed from 10% to 2% to avoid litigations in respect of 194J Vs 194C

GST returns can now be filed in a staggered manner

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The ministry further said it has also taken a note of difficulties and concerns expressed by the taxpayers regarding filing of GSTR-3B and other returns.

The Finance Ministry has announced the three due dates for filing GSTR-3B for different categories of Taxpayers.

The Finance Ministry today said that now GST taxpayers can file their GSTR-3B returns in a staggered manner. Considering the difficulties faced by trade and industry in the filing of returns, the government has decided to introduce several measures to ease the process.

Presently the last date of filing GSTR-3B returns for every taxpayer is 20th of every month. From now on, the last date for filing of GSTR-3B for the taxpayers having annual turnover of Rs 5 crore and above in the previous financial year would be 20th of the month. Thus, around 8 lakh regular taxpayers would have the last date of GSTR-3B filing as 20th of every month without late fees.

The taxpayers having annual turnover below Rs 5 crore in the previous financial year will be divided further into two categories. The tax filers from 15 States/ UTs, i.e., Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Lakshadweep, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh will now be having the last date of filing GSTR-3B returns as 22nd of the month without late fees. This category would have around 49 lakh GSTR-3B filers who would now have 22nd of every month as their last date for filing GSTR-3B returns.

For the remaining 46 lakh taxpayers from the 22 States/UTs of Jammu and Kashmir, Laddakh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya, Assam, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha having annual turnover below Rs 5 crore in previous financial year will now be having last date of filing the GSTR-3B as 24th of the month without late fees.

The Finance Ministry said that the necessary notification in this regard would be issued later by the competent authority.

In a statement issued, the Ministry further said that it has also taken note of difficulties and concerns expressed by the taxpayers regarding the filing of GSTR-3B and other returns. The matter has been discussed by the GSTN with Infosys, the Managed Service Provider, which has come out with the above solution to de-stress the process as a temporary but immediate measure. For further improving the performance of GSTN filing portal on a permanent basis, several technological measures are being worked out with Infosys and will be in place by April 2020.

Circular – GSTR 3B filing-Reg