Suresh Surana News

Question: The Income Tax Department has recently notified the new Income Tax Return forms applicable for Financial Year 2023-24 (Assessment Year 2024-25). Accordingly, kindly highlight the changes made in the new forms vis-à-vis the old forms.

Question: In case the premium for health insurance for more than a year has been paid in one year, can pro rata deduction be availed u/s 80D of the Income Tax Act, 1961?

Question: I am an individual taxpayer and have sold off certain unlisted shares in my portfolio. Kindly guide me on the tax implications on the gains derived from such transfer.

Question: What are the disclosure requirements for Indian residents who hold foreign assets? Answer by Dr Suresh Surana, Founder, RSM India: 1.0 Applicable Schedule in the ITR: Schedule FA (i.e. Schedule on Foreign Assets held outside India) must be filled by every individual taxpayer who is a resident and ordinarily resident in India and owns or has a beneficial interest in assets abroad or derives income from foreign sources during the relevant calendar year or has signing authority in any account outside India. As such, Schedule FA need not be filled by those having status of either non-residents (NR) or Resident but Not Ordinarily Resident (RNOR). For instance, an Indian investor buying US stocks from international brokerage platforms cannot opt for Form ITR-1 (SAHAJ) or ITR-4 (SUGAM) for filing their ITRs and would be required to file their income tax return in Form ITR-2 or ITR-3, as applicable.

Money from NRE account can be easily transferred out of India. However, the same cannot be said for the NRO account. There are certain document requirements, approval needed from Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and annual limit that must be adhered to in order to transfer money from NRO account out of India. Read on to know the rules an NRI must follow to take the NRO money out of India.

Question: Can non-furnishing of income tax return attract prosecution u/s 276CC of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the IT Act) wherein the net tax payable after deduction of TDS and advance tax payable is less than Rs 10,000? Kindly guide us on the recent decision of the Madras High Court pertaining to initiation of prosecution u/s 276CC of the IT Act in regards to the same.

Question: Please guide on whether returns filed by individuals can be revised. What is the timeline for revising the original return filed by the taxpayer? Would revising such a return attract any penal consequences?

Question: What disclosure requirements are required to be made by Indian investors at the time of furnishing of tax return where investments are made in foreign stocks? And, what are the relevant consequences if such disclosure requirements are not fulfilled?

Question: On the occasion of Diwali, please guide me on how much money one may get as a gift without attracting any tax obligations.

Question: Can you provide an overview of the Advance tax provisions under the Income-tax Act 1961?

In this weekly series, Dr Suresh Surana, Founder, RSM India, a tax consultancy firm, explains the taxation of various kinds of gifts shared through Gift Deeds.

R.N. Das recently gifted some money to his daughter and son-in-law. While Das is living in India, his daughter and son-in-law are NRIs and living abroad currently. Both of them are also employed abroad and filing tax returns in that country.

Does clubbing of income under Section 64 apply if a housewife saves money from household expenses to invest in schemes like the Public Provident Fund (PPF), Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY) etc? Tilak Nath Sinha recently wrote to FE Money asking this question.

Question: We are an Indian-based entity with various group companies in foreign jurisdictions. There are many intercompany transactions with such group companies which are subjected to a lower withholding tax rate in accordance with the relevant treaty owing to MFN. Kindly highlight the recent Supreme Court judgement in the case of applicability of the Most Favoured Nation MFN.

Question: What are the recent updates/ clarifications by CBDT pertaining to Form 10/10BB?

Question: Can you guide us on the mandatory filing of Form 10F and whether non-residents would be required to obtain a PAN for the same?

Question: We are a recently established Private company intending to raise capital by way of issuing shares to both residents as well as non-residents. In this respect, kindly guide us on the tax implications of the Angel Tax and the recent amendments made pertaining to the same.

Question: The Finance Act 2023 imposed a restriction on the limit of claiming capital gain exemption on the transfer of long-term capital assets to Rs 10 crore under Sections 54 and 54F of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (IT Act). Kindly guide on whether the capital gains exemption in case of a sole proprietor having Long-term capital gains on the sale of commercial property would be restricted to Rs 10 crore or whether such restriction would be made applicable on the cost of the new asset.

Welcome to the Reader’s Query segment of FE Money. This week, Dr C T Sridhar from Hyderabad shared with us that he has received Rs 36 lakh on selling his flat recently and he is planning to subscribe to REC Bonds to save on capital gains tax.

Taxation of Gold purchased in wife’s name: Selling an asset at a price higher than the price at the time of purchase leads to capital gains tax. This applies to the sale of gold also. For example, if you buy gold in bulk today and sell it at a higher price in future, then you will be liable to pay tax on the capital gains made from such sale (Read more about how gold is taxed here).

Income Tax rules for property purchased in wife’s name: Tax liability arises when you sell a flat at a higher price or when you rent it out to a tenant. In the hope of reducing such tax liability, many people tend to buy a house property in the name of their spouses. However, this trick to save tax doesn’t work as per the rules.