Reported By:
| Edited By: Khyati Dharamsi |Source: DNA |Updated: Mar 30, 2018, 02:34 AM IST
If you had just managed to understand the prevailing income-tax returns forms, prepare for a change. To file returns for income earned in 2009-10, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has suggested a new form.
To make the income-tax returns forms simple and user friendly, Mukherjee said, “The income-tax department is now ready to notify Saral-II form for individual salaried taxpayers for the coming assessment year.” This form, he said, will be “in a simple format in only two pages”.
Chartered accountants had been complaining about the existing Indian income-tax returns (ITR) forms being too complicated and asking for exhaustive information. “The introduction of the 2-pager Saral-II is a welcome step. It will result in easier understanding, preparation, and filing of tax returns,” says Vikas Vasal, executive director, KPMG.
Vasal says the form in existence before ITR was easier for the aam aadmi. “Saral-2(D) was popular amongst individuals, especially salaried people. It was simpler to fill in. Later, the government moved to the automated process, but some complications were introduced.”
But even if the new form is simple, chartered accountants say its success would depend on whom it applies to. Kishor Karia, chairman of the direct taxation committee of the Indian Merchants Chamber, says, “The form which will come in will be for the salaried people, according to the budget speech. If it is applicable only to people who have salary income, then the new form can’t make much difference. This is because everyone has some other income apart from salary income, say investment or capital gains.”
According to Karia, “The prevailing income-tax returns form faces the same problem. It is detailed and a common man can’t fill it easily. In that respect, Saral-2(D) was the best as it was applicable to everybody.”
Another chartered accountant says it will be a futile exercise and the government is just prescribing a new form to stick to its promise. “If while prescribing the form it is made applicable to a small number of people and not to all who don’t have business income, then it is being prescribed for the sake of prescribing,” he says.
