Startup Saturday Bangalore - Slides

We are heading over to the Startup Saturday and wanted to provide everyone early access to the slides that we are going to be presenting. If you are not aware of this event then find more here.

All of you who will be visiting do come by and say hello to us !! Also do ask for the special surprise that we have for you.

eLagaan Startup Saturday Bangalore - Prepare your tax return online

View more documents from Elagaan Income tax.

And as always remember you can always ask your tax queries at our Income Tax Forums. And do visit our Income Tax FAQ for answers to most common questions that we get.

Join our Orkut Community - Win Rs1000 cash and more

Have you been to our Orkut community recently? Well if not visit it now and join our community. And as a thank you for joining the community we will give away the following prizes:

1st prize Win Rs1000 - One person
2nd prize Get FREE Royale account (Worth Rs249) - 10 people
3rd prize Get FREE Premium account (Worth Rs149) - 25 people


What do you have to do to qualify? Well just join eLagaan's Orkut Community (here) to qualify for the 2nd and 3rd prize.
To qualify for the 1st prize, join the community and leave a comment here with your your elagaan user id (register here).

That's it, good luck !!
Orkut Community link : http://www.orkut.com/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=17766237

Here is the other ways to connect with us.

See Us at Startup Saturday Bangalore - July 11th

We will be presenting at the upcoming event for July at Startup Saturday at Bangalore (By headstart). So come see us at the event and learn what makes eLagaan the #1 tax preparation service in India. And while you are there learn a little about how we did it and mistakes to avoid.

We would be offering everyone in the room a special promotion (surprise!!), so do come talk to us and find out about the special.

Here is the event detail:

The time and venue for the event:

Saturday - 11th July , 2009

10:00 hrs - 13:00 hrs

North Pergola, IIM Bangalore

Agenda: (Theme - Taxation)

10:00 - 10:15 : Introduction

10:20 - 10:40 : Demo 1: eLagaan (That's US !!)

10:45 - 11:05 : Demo 2: TaxSpanner

11:10 - 11:50 : 6 Lightning Pitches:

11:55 - 12:30 : Talk: Corporate Taxation (with emphasis on entrepreneurial ventures) by S R Gopalan from Dawn Consulting.

12:30 onwards : Snacks and Networking

See you all there, and check back here for slides (we will be posting it here after the event).

Budget Implications analyzed (FY 2009 -10)

This year's union budget FY 2009-10 (AY10-11) did not bring many expected reliefs and cheers for the common taxpayers and has provided some marginal reliefs. Here is Team eLagaan's perspective of various income tax changes proposed in budget:

Basic Exemption Limit:

• * Rs.2.40lacs for Senior citizens (earlier Rs.2.25 lacs). This will provide a tax relief of about Rs.1545.
• * Rs.1.90lacs for Women/ Females (earlier Rs.1.80lacs). This will provide a tax relief of about Rs.1030.
• * Rs.1.60lacs for All other category of Individual tax payers (earlier Rs.1.50lacs). This will provide a tax relief of about Rs.1030.

Surcharge Scrapped:

• * Surcharge on Income tax has been scrapped. Individuals having taxable invomce over Rs.10 lacs will benefit more from this as their tax incidence at the highest slab has declined to 30.09% from 33.99% (savings of about 3.9%)

FBT Scrapped (Plus & Minus):

• * FBT has been scrapped for companies. This could result in tax on many employee benefit perks to be shifted to employees. The list of perks is yet to be released, but major perks affected could be ESOP (employee stock options) and contributions to super-annuation funds etc.

Deductions:

• * Deductions u/s 80DD in respect of maintenance, including medical treatment, of a dependent who is a person with severe disability has been increased to Rs.1 lac from the present limit of Rs.75,000
• * Deductions u/s 80E in respect of interest on loans taken for pursuing higher education in specified fields of study has been extended to cover all fields of study, including vocational studies, pursued after completion of schooling

Gift Income:

• * Non-cash gifts will be taxed. As per the new proposal, any non cash gift (e.g. property, shares and securities, jewellery, archeological collections, paintings and gold etc.) received from a non-relative where the value is in excess of Rs 50,000 in a particular year will be considered as income in the hands of the recipient. However, the proposal provides for some exclusion, which includes receipts on occasion of a marriage or by will or inheritance or from certain specified authorities (educational or medical institutions among others)

Other Important Highlights:

• * If you don’t have a permanent account number (PAN), your tax deducted at source (TDS) could be higher. The penal rate will be a minimum 20%.
• * Saral-2 is likely to re-introduced soon

eLagaan will keep a track on the developments of budget and keep all its users informed about the changes.

Please remember that these changes are applicable only for next year returns (current year's income). For this year returns none of these will apply.

But why to worry? eLagaan will keep track of all the changes and you need not worry or know about their applicability. Simply use eLagaan for preparing your tax returns and BE 100% SURE that all applicable laws and changes are updated in our system.

Income tax department confirms - UTN not a requirement for AY2009-10

We were the the first to break the news and now the Income Tax department confirmed (here) that UTN (Unique transaction numbers ) are not required.

So stay in peace and file your taxes withought having to wait for UTN number.

Here is the press release by the department:

No.402/92/2006-MC (14 of 2009)

Government of India / Ministry of Finance

Department of Revenue

Central Board of Direct Taxes

***

New Delhi dated 30th June 2009

PRESS RELEASE

The Central Board of Direct Taxes have further decided that the Notification No.

31 of 2009 dated 25.3.2009 amending or substituting Rules 30, 31, 31A and 31AA of the
Income Tax Rules, 1962 shall be kept in abeyance for the time being.
Taxpayers filing their income tax returns for assessment year (AY) 2009-10, or
any other earlier AY, may continue to file their returns without mentioning the Unique
Transaction Number (UTN) as required under the said Notification. The filing of such
returns shall be treated as valid and in compliance to the requirements under section 139
of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
Further, the date from which the Notification No. 31 / 2009 shall become
applicable on tax deducted at source (TDS) or tax collected at source (TCS) and
deposited during the current financial year shall be notified by the Central Board of
Direct Taxes subsequently.
All deductors / collectors of TDS / TCS may continue to deposit their TDS / TCS
and file their quarterly TDS / TCS returns as per procedure existing prior to issuance of
Notification No.31 / 2009 dated 25.3.2009.

XXX

Whenever, Income tax department stops accepting tax returns without UTN, eLagaan will keep track and make necessary changes to our systems. So you don't have to worry or keep a track about changing tax laws (learn more)

Income Tax Law Of India explained - A slideshow

Income Tax Laws in India can be confusing, specially to the non tax professionals. But at the same time all of us have to pay taxes (well seems like that is the right thing to do :-). The better we understand the laws, the more the chances that we save more on taxes.

Here is a slideshow from Afterschool which takes a stab at explaining Income tax laws in powerpoint format.

And if all this is too much for you to keep track of, then don't worry - eLagaan will keep track and make necessary changes to our systems. So you don't have to worry or keep track of changing tax laws (learn more). All you need to do is use eLagaan to prepare tax returns and we will take care of the rest.

And if you ever have any tax queries just fire away your questions at our income tax forums.

UTN (Unique Transaction Number) unleashed

What is UTN?
It is a unique number used by income tax department to track every Tax Deducted at Source (TDS), Tax Collected at Source (TCS) transaction.

Where to Find the UTN?
UTN should be provided by the company/ person who deducts tax on your behalf and deposits the same. If your deductor has not provided you with the UTN for all your tax deductions, then the same can be obtained from NSDL, although this requires a 1 time registration.

I donot have UTN, Can I file my returns?
As on date, Income tax department is accepting returns at their office and website (eFiling) both without UTN. eLagaan supports UTN for tax preparation and has kept is optional.

Whenever, Income tax department stops accepting tax returns without UTN, eLagaan will keep track and make necessary changes to our systems. So you don't have to worry or keep a track about changing tax laws (learn more). All you need to do is use eLagaan to prepare updated tax returns as per latest income tax laws.

And if you ever have any tax queries just fire away your questions at our income tax forums.