Newsletters

New rule for Insured Person (IP) generation under ESIC

Employee State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) introduced a new rule, wherein, all new joinees would be allotted/seeded with IP number, immediately upon his date of appointment.

Webinar on “Code of Wages”

ADP had conducted an informative webinar on the subject to relay as much information about the changes in the act, which is sure to impact us in our daily business proceedings.

Rollback on surcharge on capital gain

During the July Parliament session, surcharge rates were enhanced for individuals with high net worth, specifically those whose income exceeds Rs. 2 Crore.

The first session of budget pre-election was published on 1st of February 2019. The second phase of budget was released on 5th of July 2019 and the proposed finance bill was passed in Lok Sabha with unanimous votes.

Due date for Income tax return filing amended 

To compensate for these amendments, and to avoid misses from tax-payers, the due date for return filing (ITR) has been extended until the 31st of August 2019 (Previously 31st July 2019).

Employee State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) rates amended

During the last year, the Labour ministry had reduced the ESIC rates to 4% from 6.5%, for newly covered ESIC areas.

TDS return due date extended

Income Tax department has extended the due date for filing TDS return to 30 June 2019 (earlier the due date was 31 May 2019).

Amendment to the Form 16 format

In the last assessment year (AY 2018-19), the Income Tax Return (ITR) Form was amended to allow the tax-payer to provide proper details of total income and exemption claimed under section 10 allowances.

PF Wage definition clarified

There have been ongoing appeals for clarifying the definition of PF wage with several establishments approaching the courts, questioning, if allowances formed part of the wage.

Webinar: Know Your Taxes Right 2019 {Investment Declaration and Tax Exemptions (Webinar Recording)}

ADP India hosted a webinar on 19 December (Wednesday) on taxes. In this webinar the below topics were discussed: Allowance and how exemptions are calculated. Tax deductions allowed under all Chapter VI A exemptions.

Crèche Facility Guidelines for Compliance

The Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India, in order to standardise the quality of the crèches and to ensure effective implementation, has constituted a committee to design and develop minimum crèche guidelines applicable for crèches run or supported by institutions complying as per the norms of Maternity Benefit Act 2017.

International Worker & Provident Fund

The Government of India in 2008 had issued a new rule wherein the employee provident fund (PF) benefits would be extended to expatriates coming to India and working for Indian establishments.

Aadhaar Mandatory for Availing ESIC Benefit

The Employee State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) has issued a draft notification for several points.

International Worker & Provident Fund

The Government of India in 2008 had issued a new rule wherein the employee provident fund (PF) benefits would be extended to expatriates coming to India and working for Indian establishments. Let us understand the definitions first before we go further into details for compliance requirements: An international worker (IW) is defined as “a foreign national working in India for an employer registered with the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).”

New Provident Fund Withdrawal Rule

Currently, the EPF Scheme 1952 allows withdrawal of accumulated provident fund after two months from the date of cessation of employment of the member. Also, the subscriber needs to contribute to his PF account consecutively for at least 10 years to become eligible for pension; if the account is closed prematurely, the subscriber may not remain eligible for pension.

We don’t want to make any mistake in filing our income tax returns. Any mistake or misrepresentation may lead to income tax notice and scrutiny. Thus, to help you file better, ADP conducted a webinar on 27 June, on the best practices to follow while filing your income tax returns.

Provident Fund Administration Charges Amended

Administration charges under the Provident Fund scheme have been amended to 0.5% (the earlier rate was 0.65%). The above 0.5% rate is subject to a minimum of ₹ 75/- per month for every non-functional establishment having no contributory member, and ₹500/- per month per establishment for any other establishments. The said changes are applicable to salaries pertaining to the wage month effective from 1 June 2018.

ADPs’ Webinar Update on Budget Changes for FY 2018-19

There are many changes and updates which were applicable to individual income and processing from 1st April 2018. ADP had taken up a webinar on this topic.

Finance Bill 2018 Passed by Parliament, Receives President’s Assent

The Union Budget was proposed in India on 1 February 2018 with all 21 amendments in different fields, including Income Tax impacting of an individual. The same Budget was passed in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha without any protest.  

The Digital India campaign was launched by the Government of India on 1 July 2015 to ensure that Government services are made available to citizens electronically - by improved online infrastructure and by increasing Internet connectivity, or by making the country digitally empowered in the field of technology.

Union Budget: Highlights

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget 2018 in Parliament on 1 February 2018. This year, the Budget has been focused on agriculture, infrastructure and healthcare reforms in India. There are many infra and agricultural reforms and investment proposal made to support the cause. 
Some of the highlights of the Budget impacting the income or taxes of an individual are highlighted below.

Employee Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) has launched new facility under which an employee can merge all their earlier PF accounts with their current UAN number without employer intervention.

New Aadhaar-based Onboarding Process for New Employees

The Aadhaar program was launched in 2009 with the main objective to provide universal identity to every Indian resident. Aadhaar is the world's largest biometric ID system, with over 1.171 billion enrolled members as of 15 August 2017.

The Government of India has already increased the gratuity tax-free limit to Rs. 20 lakh for all the public sector employees. Recently, in September, government of India approved an amendment bill for gratuity. The new bill proposes an increases of the tax-free limit of gratuity.

Amendment Made in Payment of Wages Act

The Ministry of Labour and Employment has amended the provision of the Payment of Wages Act. As per the latest notification passed, section 1 subsection 6 has been amended.

Individual Income Tax return due date extended 

This important communication is with reference to the due date for filing Individual Income Tax return. The government of India on 31st July 2017 extended the deadline for filing the Income Tax Returns (ITRs) for the financial year 2016-17. 

New Software for filing online returns of exempted establishments under Provident Fund 

The Labour Standing Committee has recently reviewed the performance and found many shortcomings in the process of filing by exempted establishments. In case there are returns pending for the period October 2016 to April 2017, they should be filed online latest by 15th June 2017 using the new online return form.

Form 16 due date extended for FY 2016-17

As per Rule 31 of the Income Tax Act, the due date for Form 16 (certificate for TDS deduction on salary) was 31st May 2017. This year, the government has extended the TDS return (24Q) filing due date to 31st May 2017, thus making 31st the due date for TDS return filing as well as Form 16. 

Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act 2017 (Clarifications)

Maternity Benefit Act 2017 was passed in March 2017 and all the provisions introduced were applicable from April 2017. The major changes brought in by April 2017 were: Extension of maternity benefit period to 26 weeks (from 12 weeks ), Extending the maternity benefit provision towards adopting as well as commissioning mothers.

Income Tax amendment for FY 2017-18

The Indian Union Budget 2017 was released with an optimistic view on 1st of February 2017 by the Honorable Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley. The amendment bill was passed in both the houses (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) and have recently got President’s assent on 31st May 2017. Now the amendment bill has become an Act and all the proposed provisions are now legally binding. 

Benefit of Section 80CCG withdrawn from FY 2017-18

The Section 80CCG (Rajiv Gandhi Equity Savings Scheme) was introduced as a part of the Finance Act, 2012. Currently, under the Section 80CCG, deduction would be allowed for investment made by resident individual on listed equity shares or listed units of an equity oriented fund – subject to certain conditions for an amount equal to amount invested or Rs. 25, 000 (whichever is lower) for three consecutive assessment years.

Union Budget 2017 - Highlight

As most of you would’ve followed – The biggest event in India’s economic calendar just concluded and we wished to share some of its most prominent highlights with you.The Hon’ble Finance Minister of India, Mr Arun Jaitley, presented the fourth budget of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s term to the Parliament House on the 1st of February, 2017. 

Electronic Challan cum Return (ECR) gets a process-upgrade (Version 2)

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) has moved towards the next phase in digitalization of processes. Earlier, the EPFO had released a new digitalized process for Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana (PMRPY) and Universal Account Number (UAN) 2.0...

The next version of Universal Account Number (UAN 2.0)

The process of filing Electronic Challan cum Return (ECR) has been revised under the new version of UAN 2.0. Under this new version, the UAN would be allotted upfront and consequently, the ECR can only be filed for employees with UAN numbers.

The next version of Universal Account Number (UAN 2.0)

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) is in the process of implementing the next version of UAN, whereby the Universal Account Number of an EPF member is to be obtained/linked with their present employer before filing the Electronic Challan cum Return (ECR). Currently, employers declare about new joiners, and obtain new UANs or link their existing UANs (based on whether they are first-time employed or have an existing EPF membership) to relevant PF accounts.

The National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) has released a new version (1.7) of e-TDS/TCS Return Preparation Utility (RPU) and File Validation Utilities (FVUs) for filing quarterly TDS and TCS returns. The new version has been applicable from September 2016 onwards for any subsequent TDS/ TCS filing.

The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was passed by Rajya Sabha on 11th August 2016 and is pending for the approval of Lok Sabha, after which it would require the President’s assent to be notified as an Act.

Due date for filing individual income-tax returns extended

The last date for filing income-tax returns has been extended to 5thAugust. Tax returns for 2015-16 (assessment year 2016-17) were originally to be filed by 31st July. But in view of the day-long strike at public sector banks, the deadline has been extended to 5thAugust. For Jammu and Kashmir, the deadline will be August 31 in view of the ongoing turmoil in the state.