On Sunday, tax return forms were revised by Finance Ministry for tax payers for all the different classes and it has dropped the main question regarding foreign trip details and bank account details with its balanced which was asked in the form previously a month ago. As per the ministry’s statement these new forms were simplified and that would bring relief to all the Indian citizens and also the expatriates who are not required to state their overseas assets that they have gained but that they should not have yielded any income in the year stated. This clause has helped the expatriates as they have stayed in India for a very long time and thus qualify for being a resident and ordinarily resident of the nation and they could be subject to being sued if the previous schemes were applied under the new black money law that has been introduced for not mentioning the overseas assets in their income tax returns as in India all the details of foreign asset had to be reported from 2011-12 financial year. A new form has been introduced ITR2A, which is introduced by the department for all those people who have no income from business but have income from more than one house, they need not have to give details of it as the form does not contain the detailed questions on such capitals.
ITR2 and ITR2A are a 3 page forms which the proposed form was a 14 page tax return form and it was not so tax friendly. The details of foreign travel and the countries visited, total number of times that they visited and the money spent abroad from their own resources who are residents have been removed from ITR2. The ministry further stated that the details of passport number has to be stated in the ITR2 and ITR2A. The ministry has given time till August 31 to file the returns with the new revised form and the tax department said that e-filing software would also be ready by 3 June as said by Amarpal Chadha Tax Partner EY. If anyone wilfully attempts to evade tax then there is provision for 3 to 7 years rigorous imprisonment and 6 to 7 months to 7 years rigorous imprisonment if they fail to file the tax return of foreign assets.
by Sushma Javare.
