Claim Income Tax Refunds for last six years

CBDT has issued a circular No.9/2015 on 9^th June,2015 for condonation of delay in tiling returns claiming refund and returns claiming carry forward & set off of loss. This Circular is containing guidelines for refunds of Income Tax and conditions for condonation of delay of claiming refunds and the procedure for such matters. Brief of the circular for the interest of assessee is as under: 

Ø  No condonation application for claim of refund/loss to be entertained beyond six years.

Ø  A condonation application to be disposed of within six months from the end of the month in which the application is received by the department.

Ø  In a case where refund claim consequent to a Court order, the period for which any such proceedings were pending before any Court of Law shall be ignored for 6 years calculation provided such condonation application is filed within six months from the end of the month in which the Court order was issued or the end of financial year whichever is later.

In case of returns claiming refund and supplementary claim of refund would be subject to the following further conditions;

Ø  The income of the assessce is not assessable in the hands of any other person under any of the provisions of the Income Tax Act,

Ø  No interest will be admissible on belated claim of refunds.

Ø  The refund is consequent to the excess of TDS/TCS  and/or excess advance tax payment and/or excess payment of self assessment lax as per the provisions of the Act.

In the case of an applicant who has made investment in 8% Savings (Taxable) Bonds, opting for scheme of cumulative interest on maturity but at the time of maturity tax at source has been deducted on the entire amount of interest  the time limit of six years for making such refund claims will not be applicable.

News Coverage of CA Sarthak Ahuja

Some of the leading newspapers of the country, including The Financial Express and Business Standard wrote about our Partner, CA Sarthak Ahuja, in the papers recently.

The text of the news coverage is as follows:

Sarthak Ahuja of Delhi has possibly become the youngest in India to have passed the chartered accountancy, company secretary, cost and management accountancy courses, as well as a graduate degree in bachelors of finance and investment analysis from the Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, University of Delhi, all by the age of 23.

Earlier, Pallavi Sachdeva of Delhi was the first to complete the CA, CS and CMA with a graduate degree from DU by 23 years of age, but Ahuja’s achievements have proven that men are no far behind.

What makes Sarthak’s achievement noteworthy is that he has cleared all of his exams in the first attempt without taking any coaching for any of the subjects in the courses of CA, CS and CMA.

As the business for CA, CS and CMA coaching continues to grow tremendously in India, Sarthak stands as an example of achieving such educational distinction through personal organized self study and hard work.

According to him, fear of these institutes’ curriculum drives most students to coaching institutes; whereas a simple attempt at studying from the institutes’ official study material, practice manuals, revisionary test papers and suggested answers is the key to cracking the exams.

Having secured an All India Rank 10 in the 2008 University of Delhi- Bachelor of Business Studies/Finance and Investment Analysis entrance examinations, Sarthak graduated with distinction in finance and investment analysis from the University of Delhi in 2011, passed his Company Secretary Finals in the December 2011 session, Cost and Management Accountancy in the December 2012 session, and cleared his Chartered Accountancy Final Exams in the November 2013 exam session.

Having won awards for all-round excellence in St. Columba’s School and a personality pageant at IIM-Ahmedabad’s college fest in 2011, Sarthak has also shown immense talent in writing and is far from the “nerd” image that many would expect him to project.

As a script-writer for his college street play society, he has written plays that have won awards at IIT-Kanpur and IIT-Mumbai. He is also the editor of a book on auditing published by Sultan Chand and Sons, and maintains a popular humor blog by the name of “My Life is a Jalebi” at www.sarthakahuja.com, which has over 2,00,000 hits.

Currently practicing as a chartered accountant in taxation and corporate laws, he is a regular speaker on topics like internet banking frauds, blogging and soft skills development at various institutes such as the Amity Law School and the Institute of Company Secretaries of India.

He also has a website called Career in Commerce (www.careerincommerce.com) through which he offers free career counseling to students of commerce in the country and inspires many to achieve their professional and academic goals at the earliest.

He can be contacted at 9953926562 or at sarthakahuja.mail@gmail.com

The web links to these mentions are as under:

http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ani/at-23-sarthak-ahuja-possibly-youngest-indian-to-get-ca-cs-cma-degrees-115061900441_1.html

http://www.financialexpress.com/article/industry/jobs/at-23-sarthak-ahuja-possibly-youngest-indian-to-get-ca-cs-cma-degrees/87273/

https://in.news.yahoo.com/23-sarthak-ahuja-possibly-youngest-indian-ca-cs-090046918.html

http://www.aninews.in/newsdetail2/story220575/at-23-sarthak-ahuja-possibly-youngest-indian-to-get-ca-cs-cma-degrees.html

http://newsnow.in/news/at-23-sarthak-ahuja-possibly-youngest-indian-to-get-ca-cs-cma-degrees

http://www.newsreality.com/post/at-23-sarthak-ahuja-possibly-youngest-indian-to-get-ca-cs-cma-degrees.html

http://newsr.in/n/India/75538xxts/At-23-Sarthak-Ahuja-possibly-youngest-Indian-to.htm

Hindustan Times Interviews our Partner, CA Sarthak Ahuja

The Hindustan Times (HT City) interviewed our Partner, Mr. Sarthak Ahuja, on his achievement of having completed CA, CS and CMA along with his graduation in Finance & Investment Analysis all by the age of 23 years without any private coaching classes and solely through self-study. A brief extract of the interview was published in the newspaper today. The transcript of the same is as follows.

He is possibly the first Delhiite to ace three professional courses — Chartered Accountancy, Company Secretary and Cost and Management Accountancy — along with a graduation in Finance and Investment Analysis from Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, all in one go at the age of 23. Now a practising accountant, Sarthak Ahuja doles out free advice to studious fuchchas. With admission fever running high, Sarthak talks on study, play, sleep and time management.

What was your mantra for studies?

I think self-study helped me save a lot of time. I decided to not spend hours travelling to coaching centers and tuition classes. I would spend four hours studying just one subject daily. Taking up different subjects on different days of the week helped me break the monotony.

How would you manage your sleep cycle?

I maintained a strict sleep routine to stay in balance throughout the day. I avoided studying late at night because I wanted to maintain focus while giving exams. I ensured a balanced and healthy diet to keep up energy levels.

Your take on juggling play with studies.

The idea was to give extra-curricular activities just as much importance as academics. I maintain a humour blog, My Life is a Jalebi, and was also a part of dramatics and dance society in college. I was always hopping from one thing to another, one activity to next, one subject to the other … all this helped break the monotony of studying four courses in one go.

How to Surrender Duplicate DIN and Apply for Compounding of Offence

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has recently issued a number of Show Cause Notices u/s 266G of the Companies Act 1956 to persons holding multiple Director Identification Numbers) DIN. The Notice also states that the Director can apply for compounding of offence under section 621A of the Companies Act, 1956.

The following steps will have to be taken in this regard.

Step 1: Surrender of Duplicate DIN in DIR-5 through e-Form RD-1

The Duplicate DIN has to be cancelled by filing an application for surrender of DIN in Form DIR-5 through e-Form RD-1.

The following information is required in DIR-5:

a) Applicant's Name

b) DIN

c) Reasons for surrender of DIN

d) PAN (self attested copy)

e) Any one of Passport, Voter's ID, Driving License, Aadhar Card (self attested copy)

f) Address

g) Photograph

h) Certification by CA/CS/CMA

i) Notarized Affidavit

The DIR-5 is to be attached to Form RD-1 along with a Board Resolution from the company in which the person is Director and an Affidavit from the Director on Rs. 10 stamp paper.

The Board Resolution would state that the Board authorizes the Director to surrender his/her duplicate DIN by making an application to the relevant government authority. The Affidavit would mention that the duplicate DIN was allotted inadvertently and has not been used by the Director for any kind of filing with the MCA authorities. Further state that now the duplicate DIN is being surrendered through DIR-5 dated _____ and an application for compounding of offence will be filed with the Regional Director/Company Law Board.

Step 2: Filing of Compounding Application with the RD/CLB in e-Form GNL-1

After filing of DIR-5 in e-Form RD-1, an application for compounding of offence under Section 621A of the Companies Act 1956 (corresponding to Section 441 of Companies Act 2013, which is yet to be notified) has to be filed in e-Form GNL-1.

The application must include the following documents:

a) A petition in Form 1 of Companies (Court) Rules 1959

b) Copy of RD-1 filed along with SRN Receipt

c) Copy of DIR-5

d) Notarized Affidavit

e) Power of Attorney in favor of Professional on stamp paper

f) Memorandum of Appearance signed by Professional

g) Copy of Show Cause Notice

h) Copies of past 3 year's financial statements can be asked for on verification of documents.

The fee for filing will be as per Annexure A of Instruction Kit for e-Form.

Step 3: Filing of Hard Copy of Application with Regional Director/Company Law Board

In case the maximum amount of fine does not exceed Rs. 50,000, the application has to be filed with RD. If the fine exceeds Rs. 50,000, the application has to be filed with CLB.

Two sets of these documents should be prepared: one for filing with RD/CLB and another as office copy to record acknowledgment of submission.

In case the RD/CLB seeks any more information or evidence to support the case, the same may be filed in the manner prescribed.

Step 4: Filing of Order of RD/CLB in Form INC-28 with ROC

On receiving the Order for compounding of offence, the penalty determined must be paid and a copy of the Order along with challan for payment must be filed in e-Form INC-28 with the ROC.

India's Foreign Trade Policy 2015-2020

SIMPLIFICATION & MERGER OF REWARD SCHEMES Export from India Schemes:
1.	Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS)	·         Now all the earlier 5 export schemes have been merged into a single scheme called Merchandise Export from India Scheme (MEIS). ·         Notified goods exported to notified markets would be rewarded as a percentage of realised FOB value of exports. ·         The debits towards basic customs duty in the transferable reward duty credit scrips would also be allowed adjustment as duty drawback
2.	Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS)	·         SFIS has been replaced with SEIS . ·         It provides rewards to all service providers of notified services, who are providing services from India. ·         The rate of reward under SEIS would be based on net foreign exchange earned. ·         The present rates of reward are 3% and 5%
3.	Chapter -3 Incentives	·         Chapter 3 incentives (MEIS & SEIS) to be available to units located in SEZs also.
4.	Duty Credit Scrips	·         Scrips issued under MEIS and SEIS and goods imported against these scrips would be fully transferable. ·         Scrips can be used for the following :- ü Payment of Custom Duties for import of inputs/ goods including capital goods (Except items listed in Appendix 3A) ü Payment of excise duty on domestic  procurement of inputs or goods,  including capital goods as per DoR   notification. ü Payment of service tax on procurement of services as per DoR notification. ·        BCD paid in cash or through debits of duty credit scrips can be taken back as duty drawback as per DOP Rules, if inputs so imported are used for exports.
5.	Status Holders	·        Status holders means the business leaders who have excelled in international trade and have successfully contributed to country's foreign trade. They will be given special treatment and privileges. ·        The criteria for export performance  for recognition of status holder have been changed from Rupees to US dollar earnings Status category before FTP 2015-2020 Revised  Nomenclature Export Performance FOB / FOR (as converted) Value (in US $ million) during current and previous two years Export House One star export house 3 Star Export House Two star export house 25 Trading House Three star export house 100 Star Trading House Four star export house 500 Premier star trading house Five  star export house 2000 ·        Manufacturers who are status holders will be permitted to self certify their goods originating from India with a view to qualify for preferential treatment under different agreements which are in operation as per their IEM/ IL/ LOI.

Boost to “Make in India”
6.	Reduce export obligation for domestic procurement under EPCG Scheme	·        Export obligation under EPCG Scheme in case of capital goods has been reduced to 75% (6 times the duty saved amount).
7.	Higher level of rewards under MEIS	·        It is proposed to give higher level of reward to products with high level domestic content  and value addition.

Trade facilitation and ease of doing business
8.	Online filing of documents/ applications	·         It will now be possible to upload documents like annexures attached to ANF 3B, ANF  3C and ANF 3D online. However further documents earlier signed and  filed in physical form by CA/ CS /CWA ,etc can be uploaded online under their digital signature. ·         Application and documents under Chapter 3 & 4 of FTP are not required to be submitted to RA. ·         Any exporter may upload a copy of Bill of Entry under his digital signature. ·         Status holder falling under Three, Four , Five Star Export House may upload the scanned copy of documents.
9.	Online Inter - ministerial consultations	·        There would be no need to submit hard copies of documents by the exporter for the following purposes:- ü Export of SCOMET items ü Norms fixation ü Import authorisation ü Export authorization
10.	Simplification of procedures/processes, digitisation and e-governance	·           Under EPCG scheme, obtaining and submitting a certificate from an independent Chartered Engineer, confirming the use of spares, tools, refractory and catalysts imported for final redemption of EPCG authorizations has been dispensed with. ·        The EPCG Authorization Holders shall be required to maintain records for a period of two years only. ·        Facility has been created to online upload the permanent records /documents in exporter / importer  profile. ·        Mobile number, e-mail address etc. has been added as mandatory fields, in IEC data base ·        It has been decided to have online message exchange with CBDT for PAN data and with MCA for CIN and DIN data. ·        Dedicated e-mail addresses have been provided to each Norms Committee, Import Committee and Pre-Shipment Inspection Agency for faster communication with Committees of DGFT. ·        Online filing of application for refund of TED is being introduced for which a new ANF has been created.
11.	Forthcoming E- Governance initiatives	·        Message exchange for transmission of export reward scrips from DGFT to Customs. ·        Message exchange for transmission of Bills of Entry (import details) from Customs to DGFT. ·         Online issuance of Export Obligation Discharge Certificate . ·        Message exchange with MCA for CIN & DIN. ·         Message exchange with CBDT for PAN. ·        Facility to pay application fee using debit card / credit card. ·         Open API for submission of IEC application. ·         Mobile applications for FTP

Other new initiatives
12.	New initiatives for EOUs, EHTPs and STPs	·           EOUs, EHTPs, STPs have been allowed to share infrastructural facilities among themselves. ·           Inter unit transfer of goods and services have been allowed among EOUs, EHTPs, STPs, and BTPs. ·           EOUs have been allowed facility to set up warehouses near the port of export ·           STP units, EHTP units, software EOUs have been allowed the facility to use all duty free equipment/goods for training purposes. ·           100% EOU units have been allowed facility of supply of spares/ components up to 2% of the value of the manufactured articles to a buyer in domestic market for the purpose of after sale services. ·           One year can be extended for EOU units to achieve positive Net Foreign Exchange Earning (NEE). ·           LOP will have an initial validity of 2 years to enable the unit to construct the plant and install the machinery. Further extension can be granted by the Development Commissioner up to one year. Extension beyond 3 years of the validity of LOP, can be granted, in case unit has completed 2/3rd of activities, including the construction activities. ·           If transferred capital goods by EOU/EHTP/STPI units to other EOUs, EHTPs, STPs, SEZ units are rejected, then the same can be returned to supplying unit , without the payment of duty. ·           A simplified procedure will be provided to fast track the de-bonding / exit of the STP/ EHTP units. ·           EOUs having physical export turnover of Rs.10 crore and above, have been allowed the facility of fast track clearances of import and domestic procurement
13.	Facilitating & Encouraging Export of dual use items (SCOMET).	·           Validity of SCOMET export authorisation has been extended to 24 months ·           Authorisation for repeat orders will be considered on automatic basis subject to certain conditions. ·           Verification of End User Certificate (EUC) is being simplified if SCOMET item is being exported under Defence Export Offset Policy.
14.	Facilitating & Encouraging Export of Defence Exports	·           Export obligation period for Export obligation period for export items falling in the category of defence, military store, aerospace and nuclear energy shall be 24 months from the date of issue of authorization or co-terminus with contracted duration of the export order, whichever is later. ·           A list of military stores requiring NOC of department of defence has been notified by DGFT.
15.	e-Commerce Exports	·           Goods falling in the category of handloom products, books / periodicals, leather footwear, toys and customized fashion garments, having FOB value up to Rs. 25000 per consignment  shall be eligible for benefits under FTP. Such goods can be exported in manual mode through Foreign Post Offices at New Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. ·           Export of such goods under Courier Regulations shall be allowed manually on pilot basis through Airports at Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.
16.	Duty Exemption	·           Imports against Advance Authorization shall also be eligible for exemption from Transitional Product Specific Safeguard Duty ·           Import of capital goods under EPCG Authorisation Scheme shall not be eligible for exemption from payment of anti-dumping duty, safeguard duty and transitional product specific safeguard duty
17.	Additional Ports allowed for Export and import	·           Calicut Airport, Kerala and Arakonam ICD, Tamil Nadu have been notified as registered ports for import and export
18.	Duty Free Tariff Preference (DFTP) Scheme	·           India has already extended duty free tariff preference to 33 Least Developed countries(LDCs) across the globe. This is being notified under FTP.
19.	Quality complaints and Trade Disputes	·           New Chapter on Quantity complaints and trade disputes has been incorporated. ·           Committee on quantity complaints and trade disputes (CQCTD) is being constituted in 22 offices and would have members from EPCs/FIEOs/APEDA/EICs.
20.	Towns of Export Excellence	·           Vishakhapatnam and Bhimavaram in Andhra Pradesh has been added as towns of export excellence.

Contributed by:

Ms. Karishma Sharma

CA Finalist/Article Assistant

Sandeep Ahuja & Co.