Thursday, November 10, 2016

Currency Ban : Prosecution and Penalties that tax department can slap on black money holders

Prepare to face the following penalties and prosecution if the Income Tax department finds out that you have black money i.e. unaccounted money. If you deposit large sums of cash in your bank account the tax department is likely to send you a notice asking you to explain the source. If you are unable to produce sufficient proof and convince the assessing officer (A.O) about the legitimacy of your cash then you are likely to face penalties and prosecution as per the Income Tax Act. Here is a complete list of various penalties that can be imposed on you for different types of defaults made; prosecution proceedings which might be initiated against you (including imprisonment) and the provisions which can help you get immunity from same.

PENALTIES
1. Penalty under Section 270A ( Penalty for Under reporting and misreporting of income):
If during the assessment proceedings, it is found that you have under reported or misreported your income, then penalty under section 270A will be imposed on you. This is the harshest penalty that can be imposed by the department.

Quantum of penalty
The amount of penalty will be 50% of the tax payable on under reported income. In case the under reported income is a result of misreporting, then the penalty amount is increased to 200% of the tax payable on under reported income. In most of the cases the income tax department is going to be in favour of the higher rate (200%) for imposition of penalty.
Under reported income v/s Misreported income

It is necessary to know the cases where it will be said that you have under reported your income. If any of the following holds true in your case, then it will be deemed that you have under reported your income:

a) If your income assessed under section 143(3) (i.e. scrutiny assessment) is greater than the income declared by you in your Income Tax Return (ITR).

b) In case you have not filed your ITR, and the Assessing officer has assessed your income under section 144 (i.e. best judgment assessment) and the assessed income (income computed as per the A.O) is greater than the maximum amount not chargeable to tax as per the tax slab (i.e. Rs 250000 at present)

c) The reassessed income is higher than the income already assessed before.

It will be deemed that you have misreported your income if any of the following hold true:

* If you have misrepresented or suppressed any of the facts.

* If you have not recorded investments in the books of account.

* If you are not able to provide any evidence to substantiate any expenditure that you have claimed.

* If it is found that you have intentionally recorded any false entry in books of account.

Penalty under section 270A will replace the penalty imposed earlier (during assessment proceedings) under section 271 which amounted to a minimum 100% and a maximum of 300% of the tax sought to be evaded

Also Read: Demonetisation impact decoded: Gainers and losers

2. Penalty under section 271A - Default in maintaining or retaining books of account
If during the assessment proceedings, it is found that you have not maintained any books of accounts or other document as required under section 44AA, or the A.O finds that you have not retained the books of accounts and other necessary documents for the minimum time period (which is 6 years), then a penalty of Rs 25000 will be imposed on you.

3. Penalty under section 271B- Default in Tax Audit
If during the assessment proceedings, it is found that you were supposed to get your accounts audited under section 44AB (Tax audit) but you haven't complied with the same, or in case you have failed to file the tax audit report under form 3CD, then a penalty under section 271B of the act will be imposed on you.
The amount of penalty will be a sum equal to 0.5% of gross sales, gross turnover or gross receipts, as the case may be, but in any case this penalty cannot exceed Rs 50000.

4. Penalty under section 271C - Default in deducting tax at source
If during the assessment proceedings, it is found that you have failed to deduct whole or any part of TDS as required by income tax laws, then the the penalty will be a sum equivalent to the amount of tax not deducted.

5. Penalty under section 271CA - Default in collecting tax at source
If during the assessment proceedings, it is found that you have failed to collect whole or any part of TCS as required by income tax laws, then a penalty of a sum equivalent to the amount of tax not collected will be imposed on you.

6. Penalty under section 271D - Accepting loans in cash
If during the assessment proceedings, it is found that you have accepted a loan or deposit from any other person in cash for a sum exceeding Rs 20000 in a financial year, then a sum equal to the amount of loan accepted will be demanded from you by way of penalty.

7. Penalty under section 271E - Repayment of loans in cash
If during the assessment proceedings, it is found that you have repaid any loan or deposit to any other person in cash for a sum exceeding Rs 20000 in a financial year, then a sum equal to the amount of loan repaid will be demanded from you by way of penalty.

8. Penalty under section 271F - Non filing of ITR
If during the assessment proceedings, it is found that you have not filed your ITR for a financial year by the end of the year following the financial year for which the ITR has to be furnished, then a penalty of Rs 5000 will be imposed on you.

9. Penalty under section 271H - Non filing of TDS return
If during the assessment proceedings, it is found that you have not furnished the TDS returns even after expiry of 1 year from the due date of filing such returns or have furnished any incorrect information in the TDS returns filed by you, then a penalty of a minimum Rs 10000 and a maximum of Rs 100000 will be imposed on you.

10. Penalty under section 272B - Not having PAN or providing incorrect PAN
If during the assessment proceedings, it is found that you have not applied for a PAN even though it was required as per the provisions of section 139A or where after obtaining a PAN, you have not intimated the same or provided incorrect PAN to any person under the provisions of the income tax act, then a penalty of Rs 10000 will be imposed on you.

11. Penalty under section 272BB and 273BBB - Not having TAN or providing incorrect TAN
If during the assessment proceedings, it is found that you have not applied for a Tax deduction account number or a tax collection account number as required by section 203A and section 206CA respectively, or in case where you have furnished incorrect TAN on the challans and certificates issued by you, then a penalty of Rs 10000 will be levied on you.

PROSECUTION
1. Prosecution under section 276C - Wilful attempt to evade tax, penalties etc.
If you try to evade the taxes, interest or penalties payable by you in any manner or you have under reported your income, then you are liable to l face prosecution proceedings under this section.

As a result of the prosecution proceedings, you might have to face imprisonment for a minimum of 6 months which may extend up to 7 years.
If the amount sought to be evaded (tax, interest, penalties) or the amount of under reported income is less than Rs25 lakh then the time period for imprisonment would range from 3 months to 2 years.

2. Prosecution under 276CC - Non filing of ITR
If it is found that you have deliberately not filed your ITR for a financial year till the end of the year following the financial year for which the ITR was supposed to be furnished, or in case you have not filed the Return that you were supposed to file in response to a notice received under section 142(1), 148 and 153A, then you might have to face prosecution proceedings under this section.
The tenure of imprisonment would depend upon the tax amount that would have been evaded by you had the failure not been detected.
If the tax amount that was sought to be evaded exceeds Rs 25 lakh then the tenure of rigorous imprisonment would be a minimum of 6 months to a maximum of 7 years. In other cases it would be minimum 3 months to a maximum of 2 years.

3. Prosecution under Section 276D - Non compliance with the notice received under section 142(1)
If you do not cooperate with the A.O and do not produce the documents and books of accounts that are demanded by him through a notice issued under section 142(1), or where you do not comply with the directions issued by the A.O under section 142(2A) for conducting your special audit, then it is quite likely that you would face prosecution proceedings under this section.
As a result of these proceedings, you might face imprisonment for up to 1 year.

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Deposits of old Rs 500, Rs 1000 notes in banks not to enjoy tax immunity: Arun Jaitley

The Finance Minister further said that housewives and farmers with genuine savings need not worry about depositing cash in their bank accounts.

By: PTI | New Delhi | Updated: November 9, 2016 1:34 pm

The Finance Minister said that all decisions of the GST Council are being taken with con Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said deposits of now-defunct old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes in bank accounts will not enjoy immunity from tax and the land of law will apply on source of such money. A day after the government announced the withdrawal of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes in the country’s biggest crack down against black money, corruption and counterfeit currency, Jaitley said old higher-denomination currency notes have to be deposited in bank accounts to get newer or smaller denomination currencies.

“But it should be clear that it is no immunity scheme. This (deposit) does not provide any relief from taxation. The law of land will apply (on source of fund),” he said.

“If the money is legitimate which had been previously withdrawn from bank or earned legally and saved and had been disclosed, there is nothing to worry about,” Jaitley said.
But if it is illegal money, source will have to be disclosed and if it is a crime money, or bribe money, then it is trouble, he told DD News.

The Finance Minister further said that housewives and farmers with genuine savings need not worry about depositing cash in their bank accounts.

“The small amounts that people will deposit like Rs 25,000, 30,000 or 50,000 lying in house for expenses, whatever money could be there for meeting normal family expenses they need not worry. They can go to banks,” he said.

The Finance Minister said for first one or two weeks replacements may be less but after 2-3 weeks as more currency notes come in market then normal replacement will be available.

The move would help make more and more transactions become digital, he said, adding now people will disclose income and pay taxes. “India will become a more tax compliant society.”

Jaitley said that people who have accumulated black money, crime money or bribe would suffer after this.

“There is a premium now that this decision has created on honesty and dis-premium on dishonesty,” he added.

“Obviously there are some inconvenience for a couple of days or couple of weeks but those inconvenience cannot be alibi that India continues to live (with black money and parallel economy),” he said.

The decision would bring more transactions under tax net and both direct and indirect taxes would move up. Reduction in parallel economy would increase the size of formal economy, Jaitley said.

Stating that the decision would have its ramifications on politics as well, Jaitley said some political funding has started by cheques and if this step can do some cleansing, it would be a great move.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

How to Make Money without a Blog by sharing URL Links ?

There are many ways to make money online, you probably have tried every possible methods to earn some pennies. However, it’s quite difficult to earn a good amount of money with so much competition. But today I’m going to reveal you a new method that’ll help you earn over $100 per month without a Blog.

A link shortener is a online tool that’ll help you to shorten any links that you want to share on anywhere like Facebook and Twitter, using these shortener tools will help you to avoid being flagged as spam in social networks.
Here’s a link shortener site called Shorte.st that’ll help you earn good amount of money without much effort. I’ll explain how you can easily use this tool to make money without having your own blog.

What is Shorte.st?

As I already mentioned above, Shorte.st is a European based link shortener tool that is connected with advertising network so that we get paid when we shorten a link and make someone click on it.
Unlike other link shortener sites, Shorte.st is the best and easy way to earn some good money. Shorte.st don’t need the single pixel of your webpage space rather they simply take care of your links.

Features of Shorte.st

  • Shorte.st link shortening service basically provide an unique style of showing ads where viewer can redirect to the original link within 5 sec. So you can use this simple tool to shorten any links that you want to share online and make some decent cash.
  • High CPM rates with global coverage
  • User-friendly integration and wide range of tools
  • 20% commission on referrals – lifetime: you can refer your friends and earn 20% of commissions
  • Shorte.st Rates per 1,000 views: their rates ranges from 0.3$ – 1.66$ depending on the clicks came from country

Monetization Tools

Shorte.st provides varies monetization tools; you can make use of these tools to increase your earnings.
Shorte.st tools

How to Register with Shorte.st

Registering an account with Shorte.st is quite easy, just follow the below mentioned steps.
Shorte.st Review

1. Visit Shorte.st, Click the “Join” tab in the upper-right side.
2. You will see a simple form with 3 fields that you need to fill – email address, confirm email and password. Accept terms & conditions
3. click the “register” button – that’s the orange one. You can also Register through Facebook by clicking on blue button.
And that’s it! Now check your inbox for an activation email and confirm your email address.
Now you can start shortening and sharing your links to Facebook, Twitter or anywhere you want. You can also implement your shorten links to your Blog posts if you have a blog.

Payment Method

Payments are done through PayPal or Payoneer as per your choice. Your earnings will be automatically paid on 10th day of each month once you reached the minimum payout of $5.00 or more for the previous month.

Some Tips to make Best use of Shorte.st

After you have joined Shorte.st, it’s time to work on your strategies to make the best use of Shorte.st and earn money. Don’t worry; i’ll share some working techniques so that you can implement them to make over $100 per month.

Share YouTube Video Links

You can shorten and share funny, scary or any trending YouTube videos on Facebook, Twitter, Google plus or any other social networking sites to maximize your earnings. The more clicks you get, the more you earn. So use this easy method wisely.

Share Facebook Images Links

You probably noticed; funny images or memes tend to get more likes and shares on Facebook. Find trending images and shorten the Facebook image links using Shorte.st and share it with your friends and groups. This will definitely increase your earnings.

Share Website/Blog links

If there is any hot news or any breaking news going on, you can share the links from popular news websites or top blogs. Some curious people will always click on your links. If you’re a blogger, you can shorten your blog links and maximize your earnings.