The government is going to make a big change in the income tax rules. Its purpose is to make the existing legal framework tight, clear and easy to understand. This will reduce the cases of tax disputes. Fewer tax cases will reach the courts. Also, taxpayers will feel relaxed about the rules.
While presenting the Union Budget in July, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that the government is working on changing the laws related to income tax. Its aim is to make the existing legal framework agile, clear and easy to understand. This will reduce the number of tax disputes. Fewer tax cases will reach the courts. Also, taxpayers will feel relaxed about the rules.
CBDT has issued a press release
With this objective in mind, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has issued a press release. In this, all stakeholders including taxpayers have been asked to give their opinion on the following issues:
1. Simple language
2. Reduction in litigation
3. Reduction in compliance like forms and return filing
4. Elimination of useless/unnecessary provisions
This is how you can give your suggestions
Any person can give his opinion on the above mentioned issues. He will have to give the relevant section, sub-section, clause, rule and form number in his advice. This advice can be given on the Income Tax portal. Its link is https://eportal.incometax.gov.in/iec/foservices/#/pre-login/ita-comprehensive-review
A big step towards tax reforms
This is a big step towards tax reforms. Therefore, people’s opinion matters a lot in the process of making new laws. This will give tax professionals, chartered accountants, lawyers and consultants enough time to understand the proposed changes and their impact before their implementation. This can be understood with the help of an example. This example is related to the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) in 2017.
Need to learn lessons from the implementation of GST
GST was implemented in place of VAT Act, Central Excise and Service Tax laws. But, since its implementation, it has been amended and changed several times. Due to this, on the one hand, businesses have faced difficulties in compliance and on the other hand there has been a lack of clarity regarding the rules. To avoid such a situation, people’s opinion will be useful in making new rules of Income Tax.
Benefit from implementing the suggestions of professionals
The final draft of the Income Tax Act should be closely examined. The advice of all parties, especially the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and the associations of tax professionals, should be considered. Only then will the new income tax laws be strong and relevant. Also, there will be no problem in implementing them. There will also be no need to make frequent changes in them.
