The Government of India is working to make the Income Tax Guidelines more liberal for the taxpayers. It is the taxpayers who make a significant contribution, thus helping the government to run the economy. Now in a move that will pave the way for ease of doing business and reduce the severity of punishment for violators, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has come up with revised guidelines for compounding of certain offenses under the Income Tax Act, 1961. The new guidelines cover various offenses under the prosecution provisions of the Act.
A significant change in the guidelines is that the CBDT has decriminalized offenses punishable under section 276 of the Act by making them compoundable. If an act becomes compoundable, then in that case, the violator can escape the jail term by giving punishment. Earlier, Section 276 of the Income Tax Act provided for rigorous imprisonment of up to two years for the taxpayer.
CBDT said that the scope of eligibility for compounding of cases has been relaxed whereby the case of an applicant, who was previously imprisoned for less than 2 years as non-compoundable, is now made compoundable. has gone.
As per the Income Tax Act, the concerned agency can initiate prosecution proceedings against the taxpayers for violations. Taxpayers and experts have been demanding de-criminalisation of crimes.
“The time limit for accepting compounding applications has now been reduced to 36 months from the earlier limit of 24 months from the date of filing of complaint. Procedural complications have also been reduced/simplified,” the CBDT said.
It said specific upper limits for compounding charges covering defaults have also been introduced in several provisions of the Act.
“Additional compounding charges @ 2% per month up to 3 months and 3% per month for 3 months in the nature of penal interest has been reduced to 1% and 2% respectively,” the CBDT said.