Parliament Passes Bill To Provide Compliance Relief To Taxpayers

On Tuesday, amid the pandemic the Parliament has given its approval for a taxation bill that shall ease the compliance burden of taxpayers.

The Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Bill, 2020 that looks at replacing an ordinance and bring about additional changes in direct and indirect tax laws, was returned by a voice vote in Rajya Sabha. Earlier the Lok Sabha passed the bill on September 19.

Some of the reliefs include extending deadlines for filing returns as well as linking PAN with Aadhaar. Providing for tax benefits on donations to the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES FUND created amid the pandemic in March this year. Also, through the amendments, the tax treatment for PM Cares Fund shall be at par with Prime Minister's National Relief Fund.

On the bill, FM Nirmala Sitharaman said the ordinance was required in order to provide extension in deadlines for various GST and income tax related work. So, consequently as the bill was being introduced to amend the ordinance, the government included other matters too such as facilitating investment in IFSC Gift City.

Also, the bill seeks to make faceless assessment under the Income Tax Act, possible for at least eight processes such as for collection and recovery of tax and gathering of information.

Also, the bill amends the Finance Act, 2020 for limiting surcharge at 15 per cent on dividend income of the Foreign Portfolio Investor.

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