Advisory to Tax Payers Against Phishing Mails

Press Information Bureau 

Government of India

Ministry of Finance 

Advisory to Tax Payers Against Phishing Mails 

Information has been received from several quarters that emails are being received by taxpayers claiming to be sent by the Income Tax Department asking the taxpayers to download file containing payable tax details. Such phishing mails are being sent from email addresses like "incometaxindia.gov.india@gmail.com". 

It is clarified that the Income Tax Department does not send any communication from private email addresses such as gmail, yahoo etc. Taxpayers are cautioned that they should not respond to such phishing mails and avoid downloading any attachment , which may contain virus or malicious software. 

Taxpayers are advised to visit “Report Phishing” button on National Website of Income Tax Department i.e. www.incometaxindia.gov.in in case they receive such phishing mails. 

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General Budget 2014 -15: Personal Tax Exemption Limit Raised by Rs. 50,000/-

Press Information Bureau 

Government of India

Ministry of Finance 

Personal Tax Exemption Limit Raised by Rs. 50,000/- ; No Change in the Rate of Surcharge; 15% Investment Allowance to Manufacturing Companies, to Incentivize Small Entrepreneurs and Income from Foreign Portfolio Investors to be Treated as Capital Gains. 

The General Budget 2014-15 presented by the Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley has raised the personal income-tax exemption limit by Rs. 50,000/- that is, from Rs. 2 lakh to Rs. 2.5 lakh in the case of individual taxpayers, below the age of 60 years. Exemption limit raised from Rs. 2.5 lakh to Rs. 3 lakh in the case of senior citizens. However there is no change in the rate of surcharge either for the corporates or the individuals, HUFs, firms etc. The budget proposes to continue education cess at 3 percent. 

Investment limit under section 80C of the Income-tax Act has also been raised from Rs. 1 lakh to Rs. 1.5 lakh and Deduction limit on account of interest on loan in respect of self occupied house property raised from Rs.1.5 lakh to Rs.2 lakh. To incentivize small entrepreneurs an Investment allowance at the rate of 15 percent to a manufacturing company that invests more than Rs. 25 crore in any year in new plant and machinery. The benefit to be available for three years i.e. for investments upto31.03.2017. Investment allowance to manufacturing company investing more than Rs.100 crore announced last year to continue in parallel till 31.03.2015. 

To bring greater certainty and to encourage fund manager to shift to India, income arising to foreign portfolio investors from transaction in securities will be treated as capital gains. Concessional rate of 15 percent on foreign dividends without any sunset date will be continued. 

To augment low cost long term foreign borrowings for Indian companies, the eligible date of borrowing in foreign currency has been extended from 31.03.2015 to 31.03.2017 for a concessional tax rate of 5 percent on interest payments. Tax incentive extended to all types of bonds instead of only infrastructure bonds. 

The budget proposes introduction of a “Roll Back” provision in the Advanced Pricing Agreement (APA) scheme so that an APA entered into for future transactions is also applicable to international transactions undertaken in previous four years in specified circumstances.To remove tax arbitrage, rate of tax on long term capital gains has been increased from 10 percent to 20 percent on transfer of units of Mutual funds, other than equity oriented funds. 

60 more Ayakar Seva Kendras will be opened during the current financial year to promote excellence in service delivery. Net effect of the direct tax proposals will result in revenue loss of Rs.22,200 crore. 

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Salaried women to get higher income tax exemption in the Budget 2014

God news for salaried women! Narendra Modi Government is considering higher income tax exemption limit for women in the budget for 2014-15.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley is restructuring tax slabs and is thus set to approve a proposal to raise the tax exemption limit to  Rs 3 lakh from existing Rs 2 lakh.

The Modi government will ease the tax burden on the middle class and impose a higher tax on the super rich in its first Budget to be presented by Union finance minister Arun Jaitley next month.

According to the proposal, under consideration of the new government, there would also be a tax on the super- rich bracket, comprising those earning Rs 10 crore or more of 35 per cent. This category would be above the  Rs 1 crore, class which currently pays an effective tax of 33 per cent inclusive of a surcharge that the earlier government had introduced.

India's tax regime is being overhauled by Finance minster  

Women  will be offered a higher tax relief —the threshold income below which individuals are not liable to pay taxes—for women could be fixed at between Rs. 3,25,000 to Rs. 3,50,000.

 Rs. 1 lakh annual tax deduction allowed under Section 80C of the Income-tax Act has not kept pace with the rising inflation and needs revision.

a separate deduction of at least Rs 1 lakh per year specifically for education  is being considered

Exemption on home loans:  To reduce the burden on households for the interest paid on housing loan for a self-occupied house property a deduction of up to Rs 1.5 lakh is allowed. It can be increased to Rs 5 lakh per year.

Moreover, a proposal to reduce the age for tax exemption for senior citizens to 60 years from 65 years is also under consideration.

EXISTING TAX STRUCTURE

Income of less than Rs. 2 lakh a year are exempt from paying taxes.

Earning between Rs. 2 lakh and Rs. 5 lakh annually are taxed at 10%,

Between Rs. 5 lakh and Rs. 10 lakh at 20%

Earning more than Rs. 10 lakh pays a tax of 30%.

Source: www.saharasamay.com

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Raising of exemption limit for Income Tax and exemption of all allowances from Income Tax.

Shiva Gopal Mishra

Secretary

National Council (Staff Side)

Joint Consultative Machinery

for Central Government Employee

13-C, Ferozshah Road, New Delhi - 110001

No.Nc-JCM/2014/IT 

Dated: June 9, 2014

Shri Arun Jaitley,

Hon’ble Minister of Finance,

Ministry of Finance,

North Block, New Delhi

Resp. Sir,

Sub: Raising of exemption limit for Income Tax and exemption of all allowances from Income Tax.

Exemption limit from Income Tax is very low and neither realistic nor justified. It is not linked with Inflation nor is it appropriately revised every year.

Fixing of exemption limit for Income Tax is done arbitrarily. No systematic norms are followed while fixing the same. There is no transparency about the norms or policy adopted for fixing the Exemption limit for Income Tax.

Low ceiling of exemption is one of the root cause of build up of huge amounts of Black Money.

It is also a major impediment in the growth and development of the National economy as the spending by the common man gets restricted due to the low ceiling of Income Tax. This, according to experts, adversely affects the National Development as a whole.

Taxing of Dearness Allowance, House Rent Allowance and Transport Allowance etc., erodes the real income of the Salaried Class, as these Allowances are compensatory in nature and as such should be exempted from Income Tax, as recommended by the Fifth Central Pay Commission(vide Chapter 167 of their Report).

Taxing of Pension of Senior Citizens, especially Additional Pension of the very old Senior Citizens, is totally unjustified, and as such should be exempted from Income Tax, as recommended by the Fifth Central Pay Commission.

It is, therefore, requested that:-

(i) Exemption limit for Income Tax be raised to Rs. 5 lakh for Individuals, Rs. 7 lakh for Senior Citizens above 60 years and Rs. 10 lakh for the very old - above 80 years of age.

(ii) All the allowances, i.e. Dearness Allowance/Dearness Relief, HRA and Transport Allowance, may please be exempted from the Income Tax to avoid erosion of real wages as recommended by the Fifth Pay Commission vide Chapter 167 of their Report and Para 95 of Summary of Recommendations (Please see excerpts of Fifth CPC Report attached herewith as Annexure).

(iii) Fixed Medical Allowance to Pensioners may please be exempted from Income Tax as it is reimbursement of the expenses for day-to-day medical treatment.

Yours faithfully,

Sd/-

(Shiva Gopal Mishra)

Secretary(Staff Side)

NC/JCM

Encl: Excerpts of the recommendations of Fifth CPC

Copy to: All Constituent Organizations of the National Council, JCM(Staff Side) - for information.

ANNEXURE

EXCERPTS FROM THE REPORT OF FIFTH PAY COMMISSION REG. EXEMPTION OF ALL ALLOWANCES FROM INCOME TAX

The Fifth Pay Commission vide Chapter 167 & Para 95 of Summary of Recommendation had recommended as under:-

“Para 95 The Commission has felt that the salaries and pensions recommended by it are not really adequate if they are to be fully taxed. Accordingly, it has recommended that all Allowances and Pensions should be paid Net of Taxes”.

The Fifth CPC in Para 167.7 had observed as under:-

‘‘If such Allowances are taxed, then either the Basic Salary gets eroded in its real value from Year to Year or the partial Reimbursement of Expenditure incurred on certain items becomes less and less with the passage of time.  In both the cases, the objective of giving Allowances is partially nullified”.

The Fifth CPC further observed in Para 167.8 that -

“We have observed that Ministry of External Affairs pays ‘Net of Tax’ Salaries to its employees on Foreign Posting. Provision for paying Net of Tax Salary already exists Under Sec.195A of the Income Tax Act. Under the Section, employees do not have to pay Income Tax on the salaries received by them and it is the liability of the employer to pay the same to the Income Tax Department.”

“The solution to the problem of the Central Government Employees in general lies in the application of this legal provision” (Fifth CPC - Para 167.9).

Source: http://ncjcmstaffside.com/2014/raising-of-exemption-limit-of-income-tax-exemption-of-all-allowances-from-income-tax/

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Grant of Privilege Passes/PTOs to dependent relatives — raising the income ceiling limit.

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
(RAILWAY BAORD)

No. E(W) 97/PS 5-1/71

New Delhi, dated 15-10-2012.

The General Managers (P)
All Indian Railways &
Production Units.

Sub:- Grant of Privilege Passes/PTOs to dependent relatives — raising the income ceiling limit.

   Pursuant to 6th Pay Commission recommendations, Board vide letter No. E(W)97/PS 5-1/71 dated 31-8-2009 have issued instructions raising the income ceiling for grant of Privilege Passes/PTOs to dependent relatives of railway servants indicating that a dependent relative in reletion to a railway servant as defined in Para-2(C) of the Railway Servants (Pass) Rules, 1986 (Second Edition, 1993) shall be considered eligible for entitlement of Passes/PTOs if his/her income does not exceed minimum Pension/family pension i.e.` 3500/- and Dearness Relief thereon or 15% of the basic pay of the Railway servant, whichever is more.

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