ICCK

Tax Deducted on Sources (TDS) mechanism for online gaming has yielded over ₹1,000 crore during current fiscal, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman Nitin Gupta has said. In an interview to businessline, he also emphasised changes in law and 2023-24 Budget also helped in reducing disputes in online gaming.

Interim Budget has announced a scheme to withdraw petty, non-verified, non-reconciled or disputed direct tax demands up to ₹25,000. Will it be limited to just one demand or extent to multiple demands?

Modalities of this scheme are still to be worked out and we will come out with more granular details soon. We would like to implement it as soon as possible because it is a system-driven process. It could take a month or a maximum of 6-8 weeks to complete the process. The number of entries is more than a crore.  The thought process behind the scheme is that it is not a dispute per say at any forum.

The taxpayer may be or may not be aware of tax demands or there could be a situation that there is a demand and that he would pay it or there could be a TDS mismatch which can happen because the deductor has disclosed X value while deductee claims Y value. All such cases will get resolved without the involvement of the assesee taxpayer. It will be a win-win for taxpayer because, at times, these are not at all payable by the taxpayer. There may not be records available with us or with the taxpayers. It will be an exercise to reduce the grievances and to ensure better trust between taxpayer and the department.

Under the scheme, will the assessee be required to give any declaration? Will the information about the withdrawal be available on the dashboard of IT e-filing website?

Noting will be required from the taxpayer assessee. The information will be available on the dashboard that particular demand has been extinguished.

What are the reasons for the growth of personal income tax being higher than corporate income tax?

As we develop, personal income tax should be higher than corporate income tax. That is the desired trajectory and it is good that we are moving in that direction. When the Prime Minister is talking about Viksit Bharat in 2047 and third largest economy by 2027, such a trend shows we are on the right path. If you see the Budget figures, direct tax to GDP ratio is one of the highest at about 6.6 per cent for the current financial year. 

For a developed economy, direct tax should be higher than indirect tax and that is quite visible in our data. Growth in personal income tax is because of several reasons which include use of technology, compliance behaviour of the taxpayers, provision of laws to close the loopholes, annual information statement, discipline in maintaining the date for fling the returns, better assistance to taxpayers among others. The number of taxpayers is also rising. Last year, the growth in the said number was 5 per cent and this year, we have already achieved 9 per cent growth.

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