Corporate and Professional Updates on 1st May 2019

Direct Tax Updates:

• CBDT vide order dated 30th April 2019 stated that Income Tax dept. to share ITR data with GSTN to detect tax evasion by business persons. The move aims at curbing tax evasion by the businesses by cross-checking data between their GST returns and ITR.
• India has notified the inter-governmental agreement with the US for exchange of country-by-country reports on multinational companies regarding income allocation and taxes paid in order to help check cross-border tax evasion.
• The Income Tax Department will now share information such as reported turnover and gross income declared with the Goods and Services Tax Network to check tax evasion. The I-T Department and GSTN will enter an agreement on the modalities of information sharing. The Central Board of Direct Taxes has said the agreement will include provisions for confidentiality, a mechanism for safe preservation of data and timelines for furnishing information.
• CBDT has left the onus of data-sharing on the principal director general of income tax or director general of income tax. “Spontaneous exchange of data the modalities of which shall be decided by the concerned specified authorities,” an order issued by the CBDT said. Details captured in returns, status of filing income tax returns and turnover ratio will form part of the information package to be shared with GSTN. The data can be matched with the business returns of the assessee.

Indirect Tax Updates:

• GST officers are working out a mechanism to deal with non-payment of taxes by large number of small restaurants and B2C entities which are collecting taxes from customers but not depositing the levy with the government.
• CBIC has clarified vide its Circular, that IGST Credit will be first used to offset IGST Liability and thereafter it can be used to offset CGST and SGST/UGST liability in any order and in any proportion as per newly inserted Rule 88A of the CGST Rules vide Notification No. 16/2019-Central Tax dated 29th March, 2019.
• GST officers are working on a system where businesses above a certain turnover threshold will have to generate ‘e-invoice’ on the government or GST portal for every sale, thereby effectively reducing the room for tax evasion. To start with, businesses above a specified threshold will just get a unique number for every electronic invoice or e-invoice generated.

Other Updates:

• FinMin may raise cap on 59-minute loans to Rs 3-5 cr
• CBI’s Look Out Circulars against Bhushan steel boss
• ISB to set up repository to store all public data
• Companies get more time to submit ACTIVE form
• Ipca Labs inks pact to acquire Ramdev Chem for Rs 108.5 cr
• RBI may allow 66% lenders’ approval for resolution of stressed assets
• IndiGo, Tatas protest govt’s basis for allotting Jet Airways slots
• After Lee Fixel exit, Tiger Global prowls for B2B startup deals in India
• Jet Airways says will validate refund claims in 45 days
• Ericsson moves Supreme Court against returning Rs 580 crore to Anil Ambani’s RCom
• UltraTech Cement Q4 net profit at Rs 1,014 crore
• US-based Avaya announces partnership with Standard Chartered bank
• Cyberattacks to cost firms $5.2 trillion in next 5 years: Accenture
• Customer complaints against banks surge 25% to 1.63 lakh in FY18
• Office space worth $35 bn can be listed under REIT: JLL India
• RBI too joins global peers in raising gold bullion reserves
• Non-filers of GST returns to be barred from generating e way bills from June 21
• Rupee falls by 24 paise on strong dollar demand
• Sensex rallies 490 points; Nifty reclaims 11,700-mark
• Self-assessed GST return permitted.

Key Due Dates:

• Payment of TDS Deducted in April is 7th May 2019.
• GSTR-1 Due Date for the month of April 2019 is 11th May 2019.
• GSTR-3B for the month of April 2019 is 20th May 2019.