Friday, April 30, 2010

ICAI Membership Fees - Online Payment Link

Link for payment of membership fees of ICAI
http://www.icai.org/memfee.html

The link will ask for your Membership No. & Date of Birth to proceed.

Regards,
Dc

Sunday, April 18, 2010

ICAI TO BE A FACILITATOR OF FINANCE MINISTRY’S E-INITIATIVE

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC). Giving this information here today the President of ICAI, Shri Amarjit Chopra, said that under it the practicing members of ICAI will provide facility of e-filing of returns and documents to Central Excise and Service Tax assessees through Certified Facilitation Centres (CFCs). A CFC is a facility, other than the physical front offices or Facilitation centres of CBEC, which will be set up and operated by practicing Chartered Accountants in individual capacity or as proprietor or firm. With this the ICAI has become a facilitator of Finance Ministry’s e-initiative.

CBEC had introduced ‘Automation of Central Excise and Service Tax’ (ACES) programme to improve tax-payer services. ACES is a centralized web based application which enables the assessees to electronically interface with the department. It aims to reduce paperwork, transaction costs and increase accountability, efficiency and transparency.

This initiative will immensely help all those assessees who may not have the requisite IT infrastructure / resources, to use ACES. An assessee is required to pay nominal fixed fees (maximum Rs 600/- for entering return data and Rs.200/-per return for uploading returns with ACES) for availing services of CFCs.

With this MOU, the members can not only provide services as envisaged, but would also provide other services on request of the assesses. It opens a new professional avenue for the Members as they can now provide services to the assessees of Central Excise and Service Tax in filing their returns and other documents electronically under ACES.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India), functioning under the aegis of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, is in the process of setting up utility for online filing of application by members to obtain certificate under the scheme whereupon CBEC will provide user name and password to members to activate the facility. Members of the ICAI are spread across the country and this initiative will facilitate e-filing of returns and documents by assessees in every part of the country.

List of Branch Statutory Auditors recommended for appointment by RBI for the year 2009-10. - (31-03-2010)

Members are hereby advised (i) not to make telephonic/e-mail enquiries at the offices of Reserve Bank of India and (ii) in case any error creeps in during data transfer or otherwise, the records available with Reserve Bank of India would be final.

Further, as informed by RBI, “during the year 2009-10, the following 15 PSBs have exercised managerial autonomy in regard to selection and appointment of SBAs, viz. State Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, Canara Bank, Central Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Punjab National Bank, Syndicate Bank, UCO Bank , Union Bank of India, Punjab & Sind Bank and Andhra Bank.

The names of audit firms recommended by these 15 banks and approved by RBI and the names of auditors forwarded by RBI to the 11 PSBs which have not opted for managerial autonomy for the year 2009-10 are also displayed in the list.

The information in regard to branches allotted to these audit firms will be hosted by RBI on the web-site, after receipt of the information from the respective banks. RBI has advised Banks furnish the information regarding allocation of branches latest by April 30, 2010.

While forwarding names of audit firms, banks have been advised that not more than three branches may be allotted per audit firm and that they should allot branches, to the extent possible, to the audit firms taking into consideration their category and audit experience in such a way that bigger branches are audited by larger/experienced audit firms. It is not necessary that all the audit firms whose names are forwarded by RBI to various banks are allotted branch audit by the respective banks, as sufficiently higher number of audit firms are forwarded to banks in order to enable them to allot audit assignments as per their logistic requirements. It also often happens that some of the audit firms whose names are forwarded are either not allotted any audit assignment or are allotted assignment by some other bank, after their names are returned back to RBI due to various reasons and re-allotted/ considered for re-allotment, if any, required by some other bank. “

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Budget 2010 Proposals - Direct Tax

Income tax slabs for individual taxpayers to be as follows :
Income upto Rs 1.6 lakh                                                Nil
Income above Rs 1.6 lakh and upto Rs. 5 lakh    10%
Income above Rs.5 lakh and upto Rs. 8 lakh       20%
Income above Rs. 8 lakh                                              30%

Deduction of an additional amount of Rs. 20,000 allowed, over and above the existing limit of Rs.1 lakh on tax savings, for investment in long-term infrastructure bonds as notified by the Central Government.

Current surcharge of 10 per cent on domestic companies reduced to 7.5%

Rate of Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) increased from the current rate of 15% to 18%of book profits.

Limits for turnover over which accounts need to be audited enhanced to Rs. 60 lakh for businesses and to Rs. 15 lakh for professions.

Limit of turnover for the purpose of presumptive taxation of small businesses enhanced to Rs. 60 lakh.

If tax has been deducted on payment by way of any expense and is paid before the due date of filing the return, such expenditure to be allowed for deduction.

Interest charged on tax deducted but not deposited by the specified date to be increased from 12% to 18% p.a.

TDS threshold limit from 1st July 2010 :
                                                                                       Existing    Proposed
194B   Winnings from lottery/crossword            5,000      10,000
194BB Winnings from horse race                              2,500       5,000
194C   Payment to Contractors                               20,000*    30,000*
   "                         "                                                          50,000**  75,000**
194D   Insurance Commission                                   5,000     20,000
94H    Commission or Brokerage                               2,500      5,000
194-I Rent                                                               1,20,000   1,80,000
194J Fees for prof./technical services            20,000       30,000

* per transaction
** per annum