SMS BASED SERVICE FOR CHALLAN STATUS QUERY INTODUCED

Tax Information Network (TIN) hosted by National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) on behalf of Income Tax Department (ITD) gives you a facility to verify whether the banks have correctly uploaded the details of your tax deposit to ITD through SMS.



SMS based verification

The procedure for availing this facility is as under:

1. Send an SMS to 575758 with a message containing the word CSI followed by a space and CIN provided by the respective Bank at the time of making the Direct tax payment and the amount.

2. Challan Identification Number (CIN) consists of BSR Code of Collecting Branch (seven digit), Challan Tender Date (DDMMYYYY) and Challan Serial No (length less than or equal to 5 digit).

3. The amount is an optional field. If you provide the amount in the SMS you would get the confirmation whether the amount uploaded by bank matches with the amount paid by you.

4. Each of BSR code, Tender date, the challan serial number and amount should be separated by commas

For e.g., if the tax payer input CSI 0510001,11032009,5,5000 where in

0510001 is the BSR code of the collecting branch,

11032009 is the Challan tender date,

5 is the Challan serial number and

5000 is the amount paid by the taxpayer.

The tax payer will get the information against which TAN/PAN the payment has been accounted with the confirmation whether amount entered is matched or not.

(This is an illustrative CIN, actual CIN should be provided in the SMS).



There will be special charges for these SMS. These charges may vary from one mobile service-provider to another. The charge structure can be obtained from the concerned service-provider.



Online Challan Status Inquiry

You can also get the status of your CIN from www.tin-nsdl.com under the section Challan Status Inquiry.

Salient Features of Budget 2009-10 regarding Income Tax

I propose to raise by Rs 10,000 the exemption limit for women on income tax. For all others, Rs 10,000 up from Rs 1,50,000, says Mukherjee.
Personal income tax exemption limit for senior citizens raised by Rs 15,000.
No change in Corporate Tax.
Ten per cent surcharge on personal income tax removed.
FRINGE BENEFIT TAX ABOLISHED.
Direct Tax code to be released in 45 days along with discussion paper.
FBT ABOLISHED
IT returns to be made simpler, says Mukherjee.
Saral Form II to be reintroduced, says FM. In 4 years, filing tax returns online to be made easier.
Minimum Alternate Tax on book profits increased to 15 per cent from 10 per cent.

Tax Rate for the Financial Year 2009-10 as per budget proposal.

For Males

For Financial Year 2009-10

Taxable Annual Income Slab (In Rs.)

Tax Rate (In %)

Upto Rs. 1,60,000/-

Nil

Rs. 1,56,001/- to Rs. 3,00,000/-

10%

Rs. 3,00,001/- to Rs. 5,00,000

20%

Above Rs. 5,00,000/-

30%

For Females

For Financial YearYear 2009-10

Taxable Annual Income Slab (In Rs.)

Tax Rate (In %)

Upto Rs. 1,90,000/-

Nil

Rs. 1,90,001/- to Rs. 3,00,000/-

10%

Rs. 3,00,001/- to Rs. 5,00,000/-

20%

Above Rs. 5,00,000/-

30%

For Senior Citizen

For Financial YearYear 2009-10

Taxable Annual Income Slab (In Rs.)

Tax Rate (In %)

Upto Rs. 2,40,000/-

Nil

Rs. 2,40,001/- to Rs. 3,00,000/-

10%

Rs. 3,00,001/- to Rs. 5,00,000

20%

Above Rs. 5,00,000/-

30%

The Surcharge on Individual Income Tax has been abolished.

UTN not mendatory for filing it returns, TDS/TCS returns may be filed as per present procedure.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes have further decided that the Notification No. 31 of 2009 dated 25.3.2009 amending or substituting Rules 30, 31, 31A and 31AA of the Income Tax Rules, 1962 shall be kept in abeyance for the time being.

Taxpayers filing their income tax returns for assessment year (AY) 2009-10, or any other earlier AY, may continue to file their returns without mentioning the Unique Transaction Number (UTN) as required under the said Notification. The filing of such returns shall be treated as valid and in compliance to the requirements under section 139 of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

Further, the date from which the Notification No. 31 / 2009 shall become applicable on tax deducted at source (TDS) or tax collected at source (TCS) and deposited during the current financial year shall be notified by the Central Board of Direct Taxes subsequently.

All deductors / collectors of TDS / TCS may continue to deposit their TDS / TCS and file their quarterly TDS / TCS returns as per procedure existing prior to issuance of Notification No.31 / 2009 dated 25.3.2009.

View the Press Release.

TDS rates may be recast

The government is considering a proposal to streamline rates applicable for tax deducted at source (TDS).

This follows a recommendation from the income tax (I-T) department that TDS rates should be structured in three slabs of between one and five per cent for any stream of income.

TDS is final tax payable by an assessee receiving any income as salary, contract fee or dues. It is deducted by the taxpayer while paying the dues to the assessee.

At present, there are multiple tax rates for TDS starting from one per cent to over 30 per cent.

Also, some rates are specified in individual sections that deal with the tax treatment of a particular income and others are included in separate schedules, making TDS payments difficult to monitor.

Time and manpower are also wasted as a result of the multiplicity of rates, the I-T department has argued, so streamlining would make monitoring easier and less time-consuming.

TDS, however, has emerged as an important source of revenue, contributing almost 33 per cent to tax collections. To compensate for the revenue loss from streamlining rates, the I-T department has suggested bringing more income streams under the TDS ambit.

For instance, the department is considering bringing reinsurance commission received from insurance firms under the TDS umbrella, as also rental income paid for vessels of shipping companies that are chartered.

The latter, however, is subject to a Bombay High Court ruling that TDS was not applicable for ships, transport vehicles and freight or charter hire payments.

Source : Business Standard.

New Pension Scheme may get Tax benefits in the budget.

With the new pension system attracting lukewarm response from citizens, interim regulator PFRDA expressed hope that the Budget would provide tax exemption to individuals at the time of entry to encourage them to opt for the scheme.
However, the government might take some more time to provide tax benefits for those opting for NPS at the time of withdrawal, a senior Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) official told PTI.

"Exit stage may take a longer time for examination, but at entry stage (of NPS) we expect to come in the next budget," he said. The regulator has sought tax exemption for individual subscribers at all stages of the pension scheme-- contributions, returns and withdrawal-- in line with other provident fund schemes.

However, there is no notification yet on entry-stage exemption, the official added.

PFRDA further said that the tax exemption issue at entry stage is under the active consideration of the government and expects the Budget to come out with some clarifications on the issue and that will give boost to the NPS.

The NPS was extended to all citizens from May one this year, but evoked lukewarm response with only 400 persons opening pension accounts so far.

"May be with the budget certain clarification will come on the nature of investment in this particular scheme. Once those clarifications come, probably we will get more subsriber joining us," he added.

While contribution, returns and withdrawals under Public Provident Fund (PPF), Employee Provident Fund (EPF) and General Provident Fund (GPF) are exempted from tax, in case of the New Pension System (NPS), these tax benefits are not provided to individual subscribers.

For organisations, tax is exempted at the entry and return stage.

Besides, the PFRDA has also asked the government to bear the cost of maintaining accounts of policy holders under the New Pension System, a move that will further encourage people to opt for the scheme.

Source : business Standard.