India's Supreme Court has made it clear that taxpayers must link their Aadhaar unique identity number with their PAN national identity card when filing income tax returns.
The Court made the ruling after hearing the government’s plea against a Delhi High Court order allowing respondent, Shreya Sen, to file income tax returns for 2018-2019 without linking her Aadhaar and PAN numbers.
Nonetheless, according to Scroll.in, presenting the 12-digit Aadhaar number has been made optional for small and marginal farmers who want to get hold of a first promised instalment of direct income support worth Rs 2,000 (US$28.07) under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme. It will be necessary to present their Aadhaar number to receive the second instalment.
Meanwhile, according to ET Now News, the Indian Revenue Department has said that within two years it plans to introduce a mechanism to ensure all income tax returns are processed within 24 hours and refunds issued simultaneously. Refunds are currently processed automatically online.
Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said: "Last year, 99.54% of income-tax returns were accepted as they were filed. Our government has now approved a path-breaking, technology-intensive project to transform the I-T [Income Tax] Department into more assessee-friendly one.”
Income tax assessments will also become “completely faceless” over the next two years, which means that taxpayers will no longer have to interact with the taxman, NDTV reported. Instead they will receive pre-filled return forms as part of the government's initiative to simplify procedures.
Finally, according to the Economic Times, the income tax department will provide a “straight rebate” of Rs 12,500 (US$177) to people with an annual income of Rs 5 lakh (US$7,063) from the start of the next fiscal year, thus taking their tax liability to zero.
Emma Woollacott is a freelance business journalist. Her work has appeared in a wide range of publications, including the Guardian, the Times, Forbes and the BBC.
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India's Supreme Court has made it clear that taxpayers must link their Aadhaar unique identity number with their PAN national identity card when filing income tax returns.
The Court made the ruling after hearing the government’s plea against a Delhi High Court order allowing respondent, Shreya Sen, to file income tax returns for 2018-2019 without linking her Aadhaar and PAN numbers.
Nonetheless, according to Scroll.in, presenting the 12-digit Aadhaar number has been made optional for small and marginal farmers who want to get hold of a first promised instalment of direct income support worth Rs 2,000 (US$28.07) under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme. It will be necessary to present their Aadhaar number to receive the second instalment.
Meanwhile, according to ET Now News, the Indian Revenue Department has said that within two years it plans to introduce a mechanism to ensure all income tax returns are processed within 24 hours and refunds issued simultaneously. Refunds are currently processed automatically online.
Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said: "Last year, 99.54% of income-tax returns were accepted as they were filed. Our government has now approved a path-breaking, technology-intensive project to transform the I-T [Income Tax] Department into more assessee-friendly one.”
Income tax assessments will also become “completely faceless” over the next two years, which means that taxpayers will no longer have to interact with the taxman, NDTV reported. Instead they will receive pre-filled return forms as part of the government's initiative to simplify procedures.
Finally, according to the Economic Times, the income tax department will provide a “straight rebate” of Rs 12,500 (US$177) to people with an annual income of Rs 5 lakh (US$7,063) from the start of the next fiscal year, thus taking their tax liability to zero.
Emma Woollacott is a freelance business journalist. Her work has appeared in a wide range of publications, including the Guardian, the Times, Forbes and the BBC.
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India restores minimum wage increase
