Income tax returns filing: Big gains for small taxpayers

Following an increase in threshold limit for filing tax appeals in various courts and tribunals, the government will forego nearly Rs 6,000 crore locked up in tax disputes, finance minister Piyush Goyal said on Thursday.

With this, tax litigation in the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) will come down by 41 per cent and 18 per cent respectively, Goyal said while briefing the media on steps taken for reducing tax litigation. “Total tax disputes stuck at different levels for both direct and indirect taxes amounts to Rs 6,000 crore,” he added.

In case of CBDT, the withdrawal of 41 per cent cases will have a revenue impact of Rs 4,800 crore in absolute terms, while withdrawal of 18 per cent cases pertaining to CBIC will have a revenue impact of Rs 800 crore.

Goyal said that the government is constantly making changes in the interest of honest taxpayers.

In order to reduce the long pending grievances of taxpayers and to “minimise litigations pertaining to tax matters and facilitate the ease of doing business”, the government on Wednesday decided to increase the threshold monetary limits for filing departmental appeals at various levels, be it appellate tribunals, high courts and the Supreme Court (SC).

“As of March, 2017, tax disputes worth Rs 7.6 lakh crore were stuck in various stages of litigation in tribunals, High Courts and the Supreme Court,” the finance minister added. He said the move to hike threshold limit is a step towards ease of doing business.

Small and mid-sized taxpayers will benefit with the increase in threshold limit for filing appeals as they can now focus on doing business rather than litigating in various fora. Government trusts the honest tax payers, Goyal said.

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CBIC will withdraw 18 per cent cases from tribunal, 22 per cent from High courts and 21 per cent from the Supreme Court. However, this will not apply in such cases where the substantial point of law is involved, the ministry had said.

The Economic Survey 2017-18 had said that the tax litigation cases stems from government persisting with litigation despite high rates of failure at every stage of the appellate process.

Source: DNA Money