FINANCE

Amidst teething troubles and glitches in the implementation framework, the landmark reform of Goods & Services Tax (GST), ushering in a unified tax regime, has helped in speeding up real estate recovery and easing business transactions but has not lived up to its promise of providing significant price relief to consumers, even one year after its implementation. Home buyers who had pinned high hopes on GST for reduction in property prices are disappointed as the overall cost of a property purchase has not come down — rather, in some cases, it has gone up. The GST, which was introduced on July 1, 2017, has done away with multiple taxation of VAT, service tax, central excise duty, octroi, etc. In the pre-GST regime, the average tax burden on home buyers was about six per cent, though in some states, due to higher taxation, it was in double digits. However, in the GST regime, there is a single tax levy of 12 percent on the sale of under-construction residential property. ...

This week, bitcoin saw its value increase by almost $1,500 per coin. Image: REUTERS/Benoit Tessier London — Bitcoin transactions use so much energy that the electricity used for a single trade could power a home for almost a whole month, according to a paper from Dutch bank ING. Bitcoin trades use a lot of electricity as a means to make verifying trades expensive, therefore making fraudulent transactions costly and deterring those who would seek to misuse the currency. "By making sure that verifying transactions is a costly business, the integrity of the network can be preserved as long as benevolent nodes control a majority of computing power," wrote ING senior economist Teunis Brosens. "Together, they will dominate the verification (mining) process. To make the verification (mining) costly, the verification algorithm requires a lot of processing power and thus electricity." Comparing the amount of energy used for a bitcoin transaction to running his home in...

Demand and recovery can be initiated for short-levy, non-levy, short paid, non-paid, erroneous refund, wrong availment and incorrect utilisation of   input tax credit . All demand and recovery proceedings under GST start with the issuance of a show cause notice. In this article, we look deeper into GST show cause notice. When can Show Cause Notice (SCN) be issued under GST? Show Cause Notice can be issued under GST, when an officer believes that there has been any of the following instances with respect to GST revenue or payment for the Government: Short levy or Non-levy Short paid or Not paid Erroneous refund Wrong utilisation of input tax credit Time Limit for Issuing Show Cause Notice GST Act specified a time limit for issuing show cause notice. The time limit for issuing show cause notice depends on whether fraud or suppression is involved or not. If Fraud or Suppression is NOT Involved If no fraud or suppression is involved, a show cause n...

Procedure for Registration of Trust S No   Particulars / Requirements Remarks         1   Before you register your trust you will need to decide the following:         a  Name of the trust         b  Address of the trust         c  Objects of the trust(charitable or Religious)         d  One settler of the trust (Person who donates the property to the trust)         e  Two trustees of the trust (who holds the propery on trust)         f Property of the trust-movable or immovable property (normally a small amount of cash/cheque is given...

Some taxpayers are reported that there is late fee amount shown in their GSTR 3B return, for the month of September, 2017, even though the last date of filing GSTR 3B return for the month of September, 2017, is 20th October, 2017. This is not for any delay on filing of GSTR 3B for September, 2017 (as last date of filing GSTR 3B is 20th October). It is on account of late filing of return for previous period, i.e. August, 2017. The system does entry into ledgers from GSTR 3B return on the date on which return is submitted (entries get frozen). The late fee for the difference of date of submission and prescribed due date of filing, till the date of submission is applied in that month itself. In case the return is filed later than the date of submission, then the differential late fee for the gap between date of filing and last date of filing return or date of submission (whichever is later), is added in the next month’s return. The delay between date of submission (D1) and date of f...

Following new functionalities have been made available to taxpayer on GST Portal: GSTR-2 Offline Version 2.1 - New version of GSTR-2 offline tool is available on portal now. This will enable taxpayers to export data of GSTR-2 from Tool to Excel. This will be helpful in comparing this data with purchase register to take actions like accept, reject and modify. Form GST CMP-02 - Intimation to pay tax under Section 10 (Composition Levy) under Rule 3(2) of CGST Rules, to be furnished by the person for opting to pay tax under Composition Levy, (Refer Notification No. 45/2017 Central Tax Dated 13/10/2017 issued by CBEC). Form GST CMP-03 - Intimation of details of stock held on the date preceding the date from which the option for composition levy is exercised. Now this form can be filed electronically on GST portal by 30th November 2017, by virtue of Order No. 5/2017-GST Dated 28/10/2017 issued by CBEC. Form GST ITC-04 – Quarterly Statement to be furnished by taxpayer having deta...

Every registered taxpayer under GST who is not under a special scheme (like the composition scheme or an ISD registration) is required to file three tax statements each month called  GSTR-1  (for sales),  GSTR-2  (for purchases) and  GSTR-3 (consolidated). While the GSTR-1 needs to be drafted by you, you can literally auto-generate your GSTR-2 and GSTR-3 using the data submitted by your vendors and customers on the GSTN. Here’s how it works: If your sales records match with their purchase records, they can just accept their GSTR-2A and file GSTR-2 (for purchases).  Mismatches can be corrected by them before they file GSTR-2 and whenever this happens, the GSTN sends you an alert. You:  Cross-verify changes made by your customer and file the  GSTR-1A  before 17th of the following month to make necessary corrections to your GSTR-1. Purchase return Vendor:  Files GSTR-1 into the GSTN and this data populates your GSTR...