Read the above article in text format below: Housing societies’ gatherings in the 1980s often featured food stalls and light gambling games. One popular game was ‘Lucky 7’, played with two dice. Players bet on […]
Retail investors vs algorithms: Like lambs to slaughter Read More »
Lakhs of tax payers receive notices from the Income tax dept. regarding their expenses or investments being disproportionate to their taxable income for the same year – implying that the expenses or investments are from unaccounted sources. Most cases have simple explanations – the income was declared in a previous year or it is exempt income – facts already available in the tax dept database. Yet lakhs of tax payers have to duel with the tax authorities to prove their credentials. Most people emerge victorious after a long and arduous ordeal costing time and money. The tax department resources are used up in dealing with the honest tax payers & the tax evaders may escape. Harsh’s article in Business Standard on why the tax departments Data Analysis Package can cross tally more information and thus have more pointed search results more likely to net tax evaders while being bothersome for fewer honest tax payers.
Employees earning Rs. 15,000 pm pay “tax” @42% (the same rate as those earning more than Rs. 5 crores do). Finance minister late Arun Jaitley in his budget speech for 2015 mentioned “the situation with regard to the dormant EPF accounts and the claim ratios of ESIs is too well known to be repeated here. It has been remarked that both EPF and ESI have hostages, rather than clients. Further, the low paid worker suffers deductions greater than the better paid workers, in percentage terms.” He went on to advocate the solutions listed here. These solutions though promised a decade ago in a budget speech on the floor of the parliament have been stonewalled by the powerful EPFO and ESI establishments. Bureaucrats can justify anything as exemplified by the fictional UK bureaucrat Sir Humphrey in the BBC series “Yes Minister”. Watch how he justifies continuing a hospital with no patients but with 500 administrative staff https://shorturl.at/pdau2 . Don’t let the Sir Humphreys win this battle.
Market Value of Listed Equity Shares with IEPF – Monthly Watch The Fee Only Investment Advisers LLP team has trawled the shareholding pattern of all companies listed with BSE and NSE. It found that 1561
Read the above article in text format below: In the early 2000s, it was widely anticipated that the government would reduce the excise duty on cars in the upcoming Budget. As a result, demand for
Individual Tax payers have become more vocal as compliance by them has improved significantly and aggregate taxes paid by individuals has overtaken taxes paid by corporates. With that the demands for the tax department to be held accountable have also increased. Unfair treatment such as indefinite delays by the tax department or very low interest paid by them on delayed refunds are no longer acceptable. Harsh’s article in the Business Standard on how accountability can be infused in the Income Tax department using the model of Public Service Guarantee Act enacted by almost all state governments. comments welcome.
Two friends, Ram and Shyam, were travelling on a train when robbers started looting its passengers. Shyam owed some money to Ram. Before the robbers could reach them, Shyam took the money from his pocket and repaid his loan to Ram. Shyam was technically correct in repaying the loan then. Similarly, the Govt.’s move to do away with indexation is technically not a retroactive amendment but it has retroactive impact and is against tax stability. The removal of indexation follows global practices but its abrupt implementation does not. The govt should allow indexation till 2024 with the reduced rates of 12.50%. Opponents will become supporters & the future capital gain taxation will be as per government wishes. The govt can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat as far as the attempt to project a taxpayer friendly image of India is concerned if they announce incorporation of tax admin changes and an enforceable taxpayers charter into the proposed new code.
One of the less discussed impact of the budget is the likely reduction in misselling of life insurance policies. The highlight is the simplification of the capital gains regime (at least as far as assets bought from now on are concerned). The situation in respect of past assets bought till 23rd July 2024 remains a little complicated. Harsh’s article in the Business Standard on the impact of the budget.
Simpler capital gains tax regime highlight of Budget Read More »
In a race between the top runners of US & the Soviet Union, the US runner beat his Soviet counterpart. “Soviet finishes second, US runner finishes second last” was the spin given by the Soviet media. This mythical story on the cold war era propoganda illustrates the importance of data availbility and transparency in reducing the spread of misleading conclusions. The Indian Mutual fund industry has a reputation for setting up global standards in transparency. Harsh’s article in Business Standard on how even more transparency in the outlined areas will enhance this reputation further.
