Huge Relief For Taxpayers: Pre-Filled Tax Return Forms, PAN-Aadhaar Interchangeability, Corporate Tax Reduction

Drawing from Tamil Sangam literature, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that "just a few mounds of rice harvested from a small piece of land is sufficient for the elephant, but what if the elephant itself enters the field to eat?"

The advice being, the government doesn’t need to trample the taxpayers to draw its energy. The FM demonstrated the government’s will to facilitate voluntary tax contribution from the taxpayers rather than forcing revenue from them.

The FM has lauded the increasing tax to GDP ratio since the last few years and thanked the Indian taxpayers for it. The direct tax collection has increased to Rs 11.37 lakh crore in 2018-19 from Rs 6.37 lakh crore in 2013-14.

In a major move, the Corporate Tax Rate for companies with turnover less the Rs 400 crore has been reduced to 25 per cent. The 25 per cent slab was earlier applicable only to companies with turnover less than Rs 250 crore. The move will cover 99.3 per cent of all companies.

For startups, a special mechanism will be put in place by the Central Board For Direct Taxes (CBDT) to facilitate disruption-free functioning. On fair value of shares, the startups and investors who file requisite declarations will not be subjected to any kind of scrutiny in respect of valuation of share premium.

In a huge relief for taxpayers, pre-filled ITR forms will be provided to the taxpayers. This will reduce the time and burden for filing the returns for taxpayers. Also, with PAN to Aadhaar connectivity, the PAN number will be replaceable with Aadhaar number on the tax forms. Even people without PAN cards will be able to use the Aadhaar number in its place.