Income tax laws may soon be easier to understand

Rediff.com, September 08, 2006 14:45 IST

A government-appointed group to study simplification of laws relating to income tax has recommended removal of redundant provisions and use of simple language for understanding the laws.

The group consisting of Central Board of Direct Tax officials has submitted the 'Report on Simplification of Income Tax Act, 1961' to Finance Minister P Chidambaram and the government will now decide on further action, an official statement said in New Delhi on Friday.

The report combines all existing direct taxes like income tax, wealth tax, fringe benefit tax, etc, into one code 'Direct Taxes Code Bill 2006.'

For better understanding of law, the group has taken recourse to simple language -- minus the usual complicated legalese.

It has made efforts to remove existing anomalies and inconsistencies to enable easy implementation and ensure better compliance.

The concepts of 'previous year' and 'assessment year' have been replaced with 'financial year.'

Chidambaram had announced in his budget speech of 2005 that the Income Tax Act would be simplified and a new Bill would be introduced in Parliament, following which the group was constituted to simplify and rationalise the law relating to income tax.

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