Tag Archives: finance

Tax on begging? Never. Exemptions on purchase? That too never!

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Either directly or indirectly tax will be an inevitable matter for income and expenses in countries with Government. It is a concept directly connected to welfare nation. Everyone cannot be forced to pay tax for Income even though tax on expenses is mandatory. Because tax is levied for the welfare of the people and there is no meaning of collecting it from everyone when the same persons are struggling to meet their expenses other than daily bread. To bypass tax evasion and tax avoidance various departments from time to time adopt new strategies to attract more tax from the public. But, lack of systematic approach bring the entire system into trouble.

Tax Deducted at Source seems to be adopted for ease of fund mobilization of individuals and Government. A lot of persons got it’s advantage since a lump sum amount was not required to source for the payment of tax. But there is a fraction of people who took advantage of the system which demands TDS. Bringing an example which is a case about the TDS on Professional Fees and charges which were misrepresented against Contract. So, someone who are enrolled in the company records as partnered professionals in the individual capacity holding systematic knowledge, passing the criteria for eligibility and following the professional code of conduct fell down into the title of a contractor. Hence the person who is a professional as per company records get projected under the category of Contractor in IT records. Whether it is a professional or contractor there would be the liability to pay TDS; though the amount will be different.

And the person’s ‘liability to pay more’ or ‘eligibility for refund’ will be determined only at the time of finding Total Income. Finally, the persons who get refund will appear to be happy. Unfortunately there are a lot of people who do not have the clear knowledge about the payment of Income Tax. It is really heart breaking for such people whose entire income is based on commissions like commission from sale of Insurance policies, lottery tickets, etc. Earlier they have to pay more TDS. And they do not go for tax filing or refund when they were eligible to claim back more than INR 10,000. Yet some of the same persons who sacrificed the whole eligible amount of refund earlier have tried to file their returns and demanded the tiny portion due to unforeseen financial situations from the times of pandemic. The harsh reality is avoidance of double tax for a person earning 1lakh per year when he spent the entire income for household expenses; the majority of which attracts an Indirect Tax of 18%.

The New Economic Disasters- A context from India

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It was with curiosity that a Google search was initiated for finding the GSTIN with a state code that starts with 99. The matter is around a bill receipt that was received against the domain name registered in a popular platform ‘WordPress.com’ for the blog I used for creating content. The same GST number that have not been noticed last year when subscription was received at 90% discount. It is to be noted that the bill is only for registration and renewal of domain name. Availing the premium services or monetization of the website/blog (which is somewhat treated similar to making money from online gaming or gambling) need other subscriptions. The standard GSTIN is a 15 digit alphanumeric code that starts with the state code. In case if the GSTIN belongs to a non resident then the ‘N’ will be highlighted at the appropriate space in the GSTIN. A lightening that flashed through the mind while seeing the GSTN of non-residents was about the exemption of healthcare facilities from GST and hospitals displaying GSTIN before everywhere other than at the pharmacy. Here, the address of the vendor is shown as Automattic Inc., San Francisco, United States of America. As GSTIN is publically displayed, the vendor GST ‘99*19USA29016OS2’ is displaying here. It is notable that the ‘N’ for non-resident is absent. As read earlier if the company is a resident then they might have an office in the country. As there is nothing called GST number in USA, it is to be assumed that it is specifically registered for their Indian customers counterpart. Further searches that were followed by the initial searches shows that 99 is a special code assigned directly by the Centre and it will not be related to a specific State. When the GSTIN was searched it shows the same address in the bill and filing has been made by them in GSTR 5A every month. A doubt that has arisen was if the company is a non-resident then why do they charge tax from the retail customers who are not registered with GST. And there is reverse charge option for Indian companies with GSTIN who avail the service and as a result GST registration is not needed for such an American company. What might be the obligation of a US based company like Automattic.Inc to collect and pay tax to India? When the GST registration details were looked it shows that it is categorised under web hosting, online gaming, etc. It reminded about the noise that has break out against charging taxes for online gaming and tax notices sent to online gaming companies for earlier taxation periods and the ongoing litigation at SC of India. Some data shows that the ecosystem of Automattic.Inc is linked to 40% or more of the entire internet that relates to WordPress, Woocommerce, and so on. Some of the world’s popular organisations which uses the enterprise level premium subscription of WordPress (WordPress VIP) priced around 2 million INR are Meta, Microsoft, IBM, NASA, The White house, CNN, Aljazeera, Capegemini, etc. A plugin from WordPress is widely accepted for it’s scalability by Meta and news channels, as it can handle millions of visitors at a time during breaking news or product launches. Hence, it is an indirect way that Automattic Inc. through Woocommerce that they could know and understand about the activities of GST in India by availing their software for invoice generation, GST filing, etc. The standalone platforms of websites of financial sector like GST, banking, etc. demands privacy and are run by GOI in association with Indian tech companies with different coding features apart from the organizations hosted by WordPress. So no one can easily access the data from GOI and it could act as a hindrance for their interference. It was with immense pride that our leadership clapped hands for reporting formats like xbrl by companies like Infosys, TCS, etc. Yes, it was of course secure. But, one day when our female workforce who are behind the development and maintenance of software system was negotiated by some groups for their advantage it was not only their personal modesty that got troubled. It was the national security that got breached. Since it was an act that has the potential to threaten and destroy entire Indian economy, specifically through banking, such culprits need to be treated under UAPA itself. But, the network which want to derail our security tries constantly for our degradation. Some of the countries that share border with India have enmity towards us from the earlier days. Earlier, it was only our citizens who were there at other countries especially in the Arab regions co-existed with them and have communications with those citizens from such countries which have enmity towards us. But the gateways of communication are easily available to everyone in this times of communication revolution and AI. Recently, at such a context on a near war situation at the global front our NSA tweeted and urged everyone for their contribution against the acts of national security in their individual capacity since it is beyond the reaching hands of military. It is heart breaking that some of the groups in the party based political ecosystem with well structure and functional organisations containing violent groups together with their youth organisations which responds for each and every actions that affect the society were the ones who were primarily hijacked years before and are acting like a mechanism for some anti-national groups. Later, the youth and active ones belonging to some backward communities who do not rely on history were also misused by such enemy hands against themselves as well as the mainstream communities for injecting their ideologies according to their will and needs. Fancy names like narcotic jihad were not considered seriously by our society since it sounds like it will not hurt the society as there are elderly insiders among them who have global exposure within such culprits to oppose against such activities. But, the situation has changed and is different now. The population which obeys the rule of law has declined. It is somewhat alarming that the number of persons in the main stream society who got abused or intoxicated with narcotics or similar substances and thereby pushing to fell them with health issues that affect brain and mind for opposing such unlawful activities have been increased. The role of internet based networking is notable behind such changes.While looking back it can be seen as caution only since it becomes easy for the enemies to fasten their operations in a place where Finance, Law and healthcare are compromised. A lot of cultural exchange have happened due to LPG. But, economic reforms which emphasises LPG turned into a question mark at such a moment when inflation and less GDP hit simultaneously, though we have survived the recession of 2008. It didn’t affected our national economy directly. It is applauded that humanitarian elements and fraternity bonds have increased globally and visibly there is no one as strangers. On a contrary internet based networking channelized into a new economic corridor from 2005 by the so called creepy organisations of the world with the emergence of social media platforms like Orkut, Facebook, etc. The back door immigrations continued even after India got independence. It still remains suspicious and together with it a new challenge in the form of cyber space was really a terrible hit. The system has not acquired such development to employ the majority of its citizens into government sponsored jobs throughout this decades. It was when we are going through such a context that we got hit by a cockroach remark towards that category of unemployed youth. The countrymen who crossed the national boundaries for employment due to lack of required amenities in the country would also be needed to get dignified if they return back due to overcrowd of Indians in such countries, non receipt of salary and incomes due to geopolitical issues, etc.

The network with unorganised title

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It is a significant custom that society determines our future. But sometimes the expectations of society and our experiences based on social expectations will have contradictions. The trends followed by some members of a society might be different from  the family traditions of some other people. A lot of aspects which becomes the cause of such diversities of our societies determines the importance of connecting with each other. When two or more persons get connected as legal entity with perpetual succession for daily bread or livelihood it will be called as a company. Generally the company which is registered under a Company law will be categorised under organised sector and those which falls outside of registration are collectively called unorganised sector. Sole proprietorship is one of the most misinterpreted term in the unorganised category. Since partnership requires a minimum of two persons either at decision making, capital contribution, profit sharing, etc the vast majority of sole proprietorships that we see today falls under partnership business. Only some small entities labelled as proprietorship are meaningful in this regard for the entitlement. As such small proprietorship businesses have adequate capital, products are basically produced by themselves (mostly food items), no additional requirements to depend on experts for tax related or other financial decisions, etc. they do not have any inter dependencies. They manufacture and sell the goods by themselves. Most probably uses the profit for operations of the business and the remaining for livelihood. But, as a contradiction a lot of proprietorships we see around us are actually ‘partner in profits only’ and hence it need to be entitled as partnerships. When a stationery shop which is registered as proprietorship sells a biscuit from ‘abc brand’ of ‘xyz company’ they are getting the shared profit from ‘xyz company’. Since a company can have partnership some companies execute contracts to have partnership with businesses which are sometimes registered as proprietoriship. But even after the execution of such a deed the proprietary business still address themselves as proprietoriship for getting themselves free from regulatory compliances.