New Income Tax Bill: Simpler, lighter and future-ready
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The long-awaited bill for the new tax code was tabled in Parliament on Thursday. The bill fulfills the finance minister's commitment to provide an income tax law that is straightforward for both taxpayers and tax administrators, aiming to establish tax certainty and reduce litigation.
The bill is culmination of amendments incorporated in successive budgets since the idea of a Direct Tax Code 2010 was floated in 2009. It aims to maintain relative stability in the well understood provisions of existing income-tax law while simplifying it after a comprehensive review making it "concise, lucid, easy to read and understand". The FAQs issued for the new bill emphasize that the international experience of countries like the UK and Australia, which have undertaken similar exercises, i.e., writing a new tax code, has been duly considered to ensure linguistic simplification as well as structural rationalization.
As promised, on the first flush, the new income tax bill is direct in text, replacing multiple provisos and explanations with clearly enumerated sub-sections and clauses. Redundant provisions in the current law have been done away with, and the language has been simplified, substituting seemingly pompous words with simpler words. The flow of the law has been rearranged to make it easier to navigate and read chapters, while deductions and exemptions have been moved into schedules and tables.
The provisions of the proposed Budget 2025 have also been incorporated in the new income tax bill. As expected in such a humungous undertaking in a limited period, there are some typos that have crept in which will surely be corrected. Also Read: What to expect from the new income tax law: Simplicity,
. Read more on livemint.com
