SEBI Update

SEBI, on 19th January, 2016, has issued next set of FAQs on SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015

SEBI has given clarification with regard to many points in FAQs including 
a. definition of Associate Company as per Regulation 2(1)(b)
b. definition of Related Party as per Regulation 2(1)(zb)
c. Signing of Compliance certificate as per Regulation 17(8)
d. applicability of Regulation 24 on 'unlisted material subsidiary'
e. Limit on Directors to be a member in Committees as per Regulation 26(1)
f. Disclosure as per Regulation 30(8)
g. Definition of 'material subsidiary as per Regulation 16(1)(c)

The FAQs can be accessed at:
https://goo.gl/P7lA9f

clarification that HUF or Karta can not become Partner or Designated Par ter in LLP.

MCA  Circular dated 15th January, 2016

clarification  that HUF or Karta can not become Partner or Designated Par
ter in LLP.

http://mca.gov.in/Ministry/pdf/General_Circular_2_2016.pdf

STARTUP INDIA ACTION PLAN

Startup India DIPP http://dipp.nic.in/English/Investor/startupIndia/StartupIndia_ActionPlan_16January2016.pdf

10 Points Summary;

1 Tax exemption for start-ups for three years.

2 Rs. 10,000 crore corpus fund to support start-ups.

3 Capital gains tax to be exempted for venture capital investments.

4 80% reduction in patent registration fee.

5 Govt. to ensure 90-day window for start-ups to close businesses.

6 Self-certification compliance for start-ups across India.

7 No government inspection for three years for newly-formed start-ups.

8 New scheme to provide IPR protection to start-ups and new firms.

9 Innovation programme to start 5 lakh schools to target 10 lakh children.

10 Government is all set to launch an app to create a platform for interaction

FAQ on CSR

MCA issues FAQs on CSR   MCA has been receiving several queries and reference seeking further clarifications on various issues relating to CSR provisions and in this regard list of FAQs has been issued.
The key FAQs are as under  

  i. Applicability: CSR provisions shall be applicable to all companies satisfying the criteria laid down under Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013 and relevant Rules.  

  ii. Tax benefits: With regard to the Tax benefits, it has been clarified that no specific tax exemptions that has been extended to CSR expenditure per se, however it clarified that spending on certain activities like contributions to Prime Minister's Relief fund, Scientific research , Rural development projects, skill development projects, agricultural extension projects etc. prescribed in Schedule VII already enjoy exemptions under different provisions of Income Tax Act, 1961  

 iii. Computation of Average net profit: With respect to 'average net profit' criteria u/s 135(5), It has been clarified that computation of net profit shall be as per section 198, which is primarily 'profit before tax'  

  iv. CSR as business expenditure: MCA clarified that the amount spent by company towards CSR cannot be claimed as 'business expenditure'  

  v. Carry forward of CSR expenditure: Any excess amount spent (i.e. more than 2% as specified in section 135) cannot be carried forward to the subsequent years and adjusted against that year's CSR expenditure   vi. Activities that are not covered under CSR: MCA specified some activities which would not qualify as CSR, which includes: (i) CSR Projects or programs or activities that are only for employees' benefit, (ii) one-off events such as marathons/awards/sponsorship of tv programmes etc, (iii) expenses incurred for compliance of any other Act / Regulation, (iv) Contribution of any amount directly or indirectly to any to political party, etc.   vii. Section 8 Companies: Since no exemption is given to section 8 companies therefore, any such Company which is fulfilling the prescribed criteria, is also required to comply with CSR provisions.   viii. Display of CSR policy on Co's website: Clarifies on mandatory display of CSR policy on company's website and reporting in Boards' Report.

CBEC prescribes procedure for e-payment of refund/rebate

CBEC noticed that most of the field formations follow manual handing over/dispatch of cheques for payment of refund/rebate. The procedure entails paper work, manual deployment by the claimants and delay in payment of refund. In order to speed up the transfer of refund/rebate claim directly to beneficiary's account, CBEC prescribes procedure for e-payment of refund/rebate claims through authorized banks.   Now Commissioners will provide refund/rebate to assessees through RTGS/NEFT facility after obtaining concurrence from authorized banks. The claimants have to provide one time authorization (duly certified by beneficiary bank in a prescribed format) while filing refund/rebate claim for the first time. In such authorization, all details related to assessee and its bank account required to be furnished.   The refund sanctioning authority will forward details of sanctioned orders and list of beneficiaries along with bank details to authorized bank at periodic intervals and the bank would credit refund amounts in respective accounts. A Unique Transaction Reference (UTR) will be generated for each transfer of fund and it will be bank's acknowledgment evidencing transfer of fund.

Notification on Quoting of PAN

CBDT Notification No. 95 dated 31^st December 2015

Amendment of Rules 114B, 114C, 114D of IT Rules

Amendment of Forms No. 60, 61 and 61A pursuant to CBDT press release dated December 15, 2015 wherein quoting PAN was made mandatory for transactions exceeding Rs. 2 lakhs. To come into force from January 1, 2016

Highlights:

• Amendment of Rule 114B (transactions in relation to which PAN is to be quoted). To come into force from January 1, 2016.
• Amendment of Rule 114C (verification of PAN). To come into force from January 1, 2016
• Amendment of Rule 114D (furnishing of statement containing particulars of Form No. 60). To come into force from January 1, 2016
• Amendment of Rule114E (furnishing statement of financial transaction) effective from April 1,2016
• Revised Form No. 60 (declaration to be filed in absence of PAN)
• Substitution of Form No. 61 (declaration to be filed by a person who has agricultural income and is not in receipt of any other income chargeable to tax)
• Amendment of Form No. 61A (statement of specified financial transactions)

Validation of Lower Deduction Certificate

Advisory for Deductors while deducting TDS at lower rate u/s 197 certificates

Deductors deduct tax at lower rate on payment/credit to deductee on production of certificate duly issued by assessing officers under section 197. Deductors quote such certificate number in quarterly TDS statement. Instances of huge default of 'Short Deduction' have been observed due to wrong quoting of 197 certificate number. The scenario of wrong 197 certificate generally arises when the deductor accepts from deductee a manually issued lower deduction certificate by assessing officer & quotes the same in TDS statements.

2. CPC(TDS) has provided the facility of validating the 197 certificate to the deductors on www.tdscpc.gov.in(TRACES).This enables a deductor to first validate the 197 certificates given to him by their deductees and then furnish the same in the TDSITCS statement.

3. If the 197 certificate is not valid as per TRACES validation, the deductor should always insist upon an ITO system generated certificate having a unique 10 digit alpha numeric number. This would minimize the generation of default of "Short Deduction due to 197 certificate".

4. This also applies to certificates issued under section 195(2) & 195(3) by LTU & international taxation officers.

5. Instruction to field authorities to issue only system generated certificate were issued vide instruction No. 36 through F.No. SWITDS/2/2/08-DIT(S)-II[Vol.ll] dated July , 2009 ( copy enclosed).

EPFO due date

The EPFO has issued EPF Circular No. WSU/9(1)2013/Settlement/35031 dt. 8 Jan., 2016, removing the grace period of 5 days for depositing PF and hence Feb., 2016 onwards the due date shall be 15th instead of 20th. This will have impact on Tax audit report

CIRC: RC electin results

1st preference count.

Ranking wise list of RC of CIRC (Quota 1587)

1. Pramod kumar boob 1252
2. Gautam sharma 1148
3. Mukesh bansal 968
4. Shashikant chandrakar 959
5. Rohit ruwatia 897
6. Nitesh gupta 891
7. Abhay chhajed 848
8. Deep kumar mishra 788
9. Sachin jain 758
10. Nilesh gupta 755
11. Churchill jain 717
12. Gyan chandra mishra 643
13. Devendra kumar somani 577
14. Ashok kumar pandey 572
15. Pramod nahar 552
16. Rohit maheshwari 497
17. Nitin gupta 487
18. Pradeep kumar goyal 483
19. Nirmal kumar soni 430
20. Ajay kumar mishra 425
21. Vijesh kumar khandelwal 401
22. Abhishek pandey 382
23. Manoj kumar agrawal 380
24. Mohit singhal 303
25. Hari ji kumar 285
26. Deepak kumar bajpai 204
27. Sharad jain 193
28. Lal raju bijeshwar 214
29. Atul kumar garg 183
30. Raghvendra 158
31. Samarth doneriya 103

CIRC Erection results: First preference for central council

1st preference count.

Ranking wise list of CC of CIRC.  (Quota-2916)

1. Shyam lal agrawal 1936
2. Prakash sharma 1422
3. Manu agrawal 1351
4. Kemisha soni 1328
5. Mukesh kushwah 1237
6. Umesh garg 971
7. Bankim shukla 953
8. Rajesh mangal 951
9. Jitender goyal 943
10. S. N. Maheshwari 924
11. Vikas jain 847
12. Amresh vashisht 845
13. Avichal kapoor 677
14. Vinay mittal 632
15. C. L. Yadav 628
16. Suman nayak 569
17. Nitish agrawal 446
18. Manoj sharma 446
19. Anubhav pradhan 186
20. Dhruv agrawal 97
21. Sanjeet kumar 61
22. Sanjay gupta 43

Annual information return

CBDT has issued Notification dated 30/12/2015, amending Rules 114B, 114C, 114D, 114E.

W.e.f. 01/04/2016, all assessees (Liable for Tax Audit u/s 44AB), will have to file Annual Information Return in Form 61A, in case of receipt of Cash payment exceeding Rs. 2 lacs for Sale of Goods/Services of any nature.