Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that more than 10 million assessees particularly the small salary earners shall secure the long-due notices for the dues pertinent to the income tax, wealth tax, and gift tax withdrawn.
In an amnesty plan, it shall attain the dues of up to ₹25,000 in cases prior to the 2009-10 financial year and up to ₹10,000 for cases between then and 2014-15 disposed of.
The minister has presented the Union interim budget for the 2024-25 financial year. When she mentioned that the measure was aligned with the steps of the government to facilitate the living and functioning of the business.
In her Interim Budget speech in the Parliament, she announced, “I propose to withdraw such outstanding direct tax demands up to twenty-five thousand rupees ( ₹25,000) pertaining to the period up to the financial year 2009-10 and up to ten-thousand rupees ( ₹10,000) for financial years 2010-11 to 2014-15. This is expected to benefit about a crore tax-payers,”
Sitharaman mentioned that there are many “petty [amounts], non-verified, non-reconciled or disputed direct tax demands, many of them dating as far back as the year 1962, which continue to remain on the books, causing anxiety to honest taxpayers and hindering refunds of subsequent years”.
The objective is to lessen the bigger number of old litigations that take tax departments’ time and energy, as per the officials. Revenue secretary Sanjay Malhotra expressed these demands include notices “pending with respect to income tax, wealth tax and gift tax. Many of these demands are very, very old, dating from 1962… Because these demands are very old, many of them are unreconciled because of systemic issues.”
Issues take place as the tax payment records were missed before all the tax records were centralized in 2010-11. The government calls the same notices withdrawal instead of tax waiver, he added.
It is a significant tax relief for the assessee, who has been loaded with anxiety and uncertainty due to these due demands, and the courts, who have been loaded with pending litigations. It also addresses tax demands associated with estate duty, and banking cash transaction tax, said a tax expert.
A large amount back into circulation shall get back through this method as per tax experts The same is aligned with the government’s concerted effort to facilitate litigation and make the environment more taxpayer-friendly,
Extended Tax Sops
Maintaining the status quo on both direct and indirect tax rates is been rendered by the interim budget, however the same extended tax sops for specific sectors by 1 year. Particularly tax advantages to start-ups along with the investments made via sovereign wealth or pension funds as indeed the tax exemption on specific income of certain IFSC units that would have lapsed on March 31, 2024, have been extended up to March 31, next year.
As per the tax expert, the no big bang shifts have been announced, in a welcome move, the sunset on tax advantages furnished to start-ups, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and IFSC units was extended to March 31, 2025. By the investor community, this was much awaited and ensured continuity in taxation.
