Forget about taxman, focus on business: CBDT to start-ups
| Date :07-Jul-2019 |
By Neelabh Srivastava:
NEW DELHI
THE country’s start-up community should now not worry about taxmen and concentrate on their businesses as concerns related to‘angel tax’ have been ‘sorted out’, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) chief said on Saturday. Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman P C Mody told PTI in an interview that all ‘legacy issues’ related to start-ups will be resolved through a consultative process and under a strict supervision of senior officers of the tax authority.
In her maiden Budget speech on Friday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed a number of measures to resolve the problems being faced by start-ups with regard to their initial funding, called angel tax, their certification and verification of investors. The CBDT boss said, “I am very happy to say that all issues which were there with the DIPP... We have had extensive deliberations between both the departments and we have resolved all issues related to start-ups.” The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) is now called DPIIT (Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade DPIIT). “The issues resolved are with regard to the definition of start-ups, with regard to the issue of valuation of shares and with regard to sources of funds,” Mody said.
The DPIIT, under the Commerce and Industry Ministry, deals with foreign direct investment and issues related to start-ups. “Now, I think everything has been sorted out and there should not be any cause of concern for the startups,” on Mody said. “As the head of the tax family, I can definitely assure the start-ups that there would not be any occasion for them to agitate or have any misgivings.They can just concentrate on doing their business,” the Chairman said. The Central Board of Direct Taxes is the policy-making body for the IncomeTax Department.
Asked what are the ‘administrative arrangements’ that his department will make in this context, as announced by Sitharaman, Mody said that this statement of the Finance Minister was in respect of‘legacy issues’. “Like in certain cases where scrutiny (of a start-up) had already commenced or the notices were already issued, there we propose to have dedicated officers carrying out the scrutiny and that also would be done in consultation and prior approval of supervisory officers,” he said.
“So, when there is involvement of senior officers and there is more of a consultative process, I do not anticipate that there would be any issue left that would trouble or agitate start-ups,” the CBDT chief said. Sitharaman has stated that it will be ensured that no inquiry or verification in such cases be carried out by the assessing officer without obtaining approval of the supervisory officer.