March, 2016 - Wealth18.com

Mar312016 by wealth18.comNo Comments

Taxation on Sale of Shares – Business Income or Capital Gain? – new CBDT circular

Featured, Taxation

Over the past few years, there were lot of uncertainly and litigation around this point - whether the sale of shares is treated as Capital gain or Business Income. Despite of various court rulings as well as CBDT clarifications, disputes continues to exist on the facts related to individual case since the taxpayers find it difficult to prove the intention in acquiring such shares/securities. In a recent CBDT circular, tax payers are allowed to decide whether their gains/losses from sale of listed shares/securities should be treated as business income or as capital gains for tax purposes. As the circular is binding on the Assessing officers, they cannot question the classification of the income by the assessee. However, the circular has restricted application to listed shares and securitie...

Mar192016 by wealth18.comNo Comments

Govt reduced interest rates on PPF, NSC, KVP etc

News

The government has reduced the rate of interest of small saving schemes from April 1 2016. The popular Public Provident Fund (PPF) will yield 8.1% from April 1compared with 8.7% at present. The Kisan Vikas Patra will fetch 7.8% against 8.7% now while five-year National Savings Certificate (NSC) will offer an annual return of 8.1% against 8.5%. See below the revised rates for the schemes : Rate of Interest on Small Savings Current rate Rates from April 1 PPF 8.7 8.1 Kisan Vikas Patra 8.7 7.8 Sukanya Samriddhi 9.2 8.6 Postal Savings Deposit 4 4 5 Year NSC 8.5 8.1 5 year Senior Citizen 9.3 8.6 5 year Monthly Income 8.4 7.8 Postal Deposits - 1 year 8.4 7.1 Postal Deposits - 2 year 8.4 7.2 Postal Deposits - 3 year 8.4 7.4 Postal De...

Mar132016 by wealth18.comNo Comments

New EPF Withdrawal forms – withdraw PF without employer signature

How to Series, PF

EPFO recently launched “New EPF Withdrawal Forms”, ( Form 19 UAN, Form 10C UAN and Form 31 UAN) which can be used to withdraw PF amount without employer signature. Employees will no longer need the approval of their employers to withdraw money from their Employees Provident Fund (EPF) corpus. Conditions to use this new facility to withdraw PF without employer attestation: You must have UAN number activated. (See - How you can activate UAN) You must link your Aadhaar number with UAN. You must provide your Bank details with UAN. You KYC have been verified by your employer using digital signatures. If you meet above conditions, then you can withdraw PF without the signature of your employer. “Employees whose details like Aadhaar number and bank account number have been seeded into...

Mar132016 by wealth18.comNo Comments

EPF Mobile App – Check EPF Balance and Activate UAN

How to Series, PF

EPFO has released mobile application (M-EPF) for employees, employers and pensioners. This app can be downloaded either from Google Play store or it can be directly downloaded from Laptop/ PC for manual installation from the link below: https://59.180.231.60:9091/AppDownload/ Once you download the Mobile App, you will get the welcome screen. You can see that there are options for employees, employers as well as pensioner. When you click on the “Employee ” section, you can see two options Activate UAN Balance / Passbook 1) Balance / Passbook - You can click on Balance / Passbook, to see the PF balance - You need to enter UAN number and registered 10 digit mobile number. 2) Activate UAN - You can use this option, if you have PF Universal Account number (UAN). If you donot...

Mar92016 by wealth18.comNo Comments

IRFC 7.64% Tax Free Bonds – Tranche II (March 2016) – Details & Review

Bonds

Indian Railways Finance Corporation (IRFC) is offering tax-free bonds to raise Rs 2450 crore at the rate of 7.29% (10 years) and 7.64% (15 years) to retail investors. The rural focused development lender has already raised Rs 1500 crore via private placement. The issue will open on March 10 on First-come-first serve basis. Closing date March 14, 2016. Size of the Issue – IRFC is authorized to raise Rs. 2450 crore from tax free bonds this financial year. Other open TAX FREE Bond - NABARD 7.64% Tax free bond (9-14 March 2016) IRFC issue will be open from 10-March-2016 to 14-Mar-2016. IRFC Tax Free Bonds (Retail Investors upto Rs 10 Lakhs) Details Series I Series II Tenor 10 Years 15 years Interest Paid Annual Annual Coupon Rate 7.29% 7.64% Effective Pre-Tax Yield (30% ...

Mar82016 by wealth18.comNo Comments

Government withdraws controversial EPF tax proposal

News, PF

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday (8th March) that government has decided to withdraw the proposal to impose tax on withdrawal from the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) contributions. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also withdrew the Budget proposal of taxing employer's contribution to provident and superannuation fund (SAF) beyond Rs 1.5 lakh. The rollback of the controversial EPF tax proposal is a step in the right direction and will bring welcome relief to the salaried class, say tax experts With the rollback of these proposals, EPF will continue to be an attractive investment option with an EEE scheme. Exempt in all three stages of EPF - contribution, interest as well as withdrawal. In addition, the exemption provided for 40% withdrawal from the NPS corp...

Mar52016 by wealth18.comNo Comments

Sovereign Gold Bonds- March 2016 Series-II (3rd Tranche) – Details and Review

Bonds

Sovereign Gold Bonds- 2016 Series-II (3rd Tranche) The investment in Sovereign Gold Bonds, 2016 is now open for subscription from March 8, 2016 to March 14, 2016. (Government of India vide its Notification F.No. 4(19)-W&M/2014 dated March 04, 2016). The bonds will be issued on March 29, 2016. The issuance of Sovereign Gold Bonds in this tranche will be done at Rs 2,916 /gm of gold. This is the 3rd time, the subscription is open for Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGB). Previous subscription: In Nov 2015 (Issue price - Rs 2684 / gm) - got subscription for 915.95 kg of gold worth Rs 246 crore In Jan 2016 (Issue price - Rs 2600 / gm) - received subscription for 3,071 kg gold amounting to Rs 798 crore. In my previous post, I have provided more details around Sovereign Gold Bonds 0 its...

Mar52016 by wealth18.comNo Comments

Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme – Should you invest in SGB?

Bonds

Sovereign Gold Bond (SGBs) are government securities denominated in grams of gold that also provides interest of 2.75% p.a. on top of price of gold. They are substitutes for holding physical gold. The Bond is issued by Reserve Bank on behalf of Government of India. How the Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme works? For each gram of gold, you can buy 1 unit of SGB. The rate is fixed by the government at the time of issuing the bond You will get interest @ 2.75% p.a. Interest is paid every six months. On maturity, you will get the price of gold at that point of time You can purchase a minimum of 2 gms (2 units) and a maximum of 500 gms (500 units) of Gold bonds every financial year The bonds will mature in 8 years. However, the investors have an option to exit after the 5th This means, aft...

Mar52016 by wealth18.comNo Comments

NABARD 7.64% Tax Free Bonds (March 2016) – Details & Review

Bonds

NABARD is offering tax-free bonds to raise Rs 3500 crore at the rate of 7.29% (10 years) and 7.64% (15 years) to retail investors. The rural focused development lender has already raised Rs 1500 crore via private placement. The issue will open on March 9 on First-come-first serve basis. Size of the Issue – NABARD is authorized to raise Rs. 5,000 crore from tax free bonds this financial year. The company has already raised Rs. 1500 crore through private placement. The company will raise Rs. 3500 crore in this issue. The issue will be open during 09-March-2016. Other open TAX FREE Bond - IRFC 7.64% Tax free bond (10-14 March 2016) NABARD Tax Free Bonds Details Series I Series II Tenor 10 Years 15 years Interest Paid Annual Annual Coupon Rate 7.29% 7.64% Effective Pre-Tax ...