Unit-1 BASIC CONCEPTS OF INCOM TAX
Unit-1 BASIC CONCEPTS OF INCOM TAX
Structure
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Broad Mechanism of Income Tax in India
1.3 Concept of Income
1.3.1 Definition of Income
1.3.2 Basic Principles
1.4 Definition of Person
1.5 Definition of Assessee
1.6 Permanent Account Number
1.7 Assessment Year
1.8 Previous Year
1.9 Taxation of Previous Year’s Income during the Same Year
1.10 Concept of Total Income
1.11 Accounting Method
1.12 Let Us Sum Up
1.13 Key Words
1.14 Answers to Check Your Progress
1.15 Terminal Questions/Exercises
1.0 OBJECTIVES
After studying this unit, you should be able to:
explain the Income tax administration in India; and
define specific terms which are relevant for the study of the subject.
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Income tax is one of the direct taxes levied by the Central Government. It is
considered direct as it is payable in the Assessment Year, directly by the person on
the income earned during the previous year (Accounting/Financial Year).
Therefore, every student of income tax must know the meaning of the terms
income, previous year, assessment year, total income and who are the persons
liable to income tax in India. In this unit, we have traced the history of income
tax in India and also defined all these terms as per the provisions of the Income Tax
Act as amended up to date.
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Fundamentals
1.2 BROAD MECHANISM OF INCOME TAX IN
INDIA
The First War of Independence in 1857 was a major financial burden to the
English Government which brought great financial difficulties. Income tax
was introduced and imposed in India for the first time in 1860 by ‘Sir James
Wilson’ for the Fundamentals reason of financial necessities. However, to make
it a permanent and main source of Government revenue, the British Government
enacted the new Income Tax Act, 1886. The financial crunch resulting from the
First World War brought to focus the inadequacies of the said Act. After extensive
investigation, the Act of 1922 was enacted and was effective for about four
decades.
These intervening years saw India gain independence and the new Indian
Government felt that the Income Tax Act needed a thorough overhaul. The Law
Commission submitted a draft bill in 1958. A committee appointed under the
Chairmanship of Mahabir Tyagi in 1958, also known as the ‘Direct taxes
Administration Committee’, to look into the direct tax structure submitted a draft.
Finally, the old Indian Income Tax Act, 1922 was completely recast in 1961 and
the new Income Tax Act came into force with effect from 1st April,1962.
The administration of the Income Tax Act, 1961 is done by the Central Board of
Direct Taxes (CBDT), which works under the supervision of the Ministry of
Finance. The CBDT is charged with the duty of framing rules for the
administration of the Income Tax Act. These rules, known as the Income Tax
Rules, 1962, contain various forms and miscellaneous details. The Government
has set up a separate income tax department for this purpose. Income tax is an
important source of income for the Central Government. The process of
framing rules is a very elaborate one, it involves notifying the rule first for
public deliberation, and then for adoption. They are also placed on the tables
of the House for information. These Rules are changed as and when the
situation warrants.
The CBDT also issues from time to time, various circulars for the direction of
the officials of the Income Tax Department and for information of tax payers.
Although income tax is levied and collected by the Central Government, yet a
certain portion of it is distributed among the States for their projects. It is, therefore,
necessary for a student of income tax to keep himself up-to-date with the latest
provisions. The best way to do this is to regularly read various tax journals and
other tax publications.
It is therefore, necessary that any student of income tax should not only study the
Income Tax Act but also the Income Tax Rules and the latest Finance Act. All
these must be studied simultaneously.
Every entity whose income (computed in accordance with the Income Tax Act
and the Income Tax Rules etc.) is more than the tax-free limit as prescribed by
the relevant Finance Act, is required to pay tax. The Finance Act of 2023, as
relevant for Assessment Year 2023-24 has the exemption limit to Rs.
2,50,000/3,00,000/5,00,000 as per the old tax regime.
Recognizing the diversity and the need for standardization of the sources of
income, the Income Tax Act has identified five heads of income. They are
Salaries, Income from House Property, Profits and Gains from Business or
Profession, Capital Gains and Income from Other Sources. In this course, we
will explain these five heads of income.
The income tax read along with the Income Tax Rules and the Finance Act
provides for all the possible situations that are likely to arise in the administration
of income tax law.
The Income Tax Act, 1961 extends to the entire country and comprises of 298
sections and 14 Schedules.
The subject matter of income tax is ‘Income’, but no definition of income has
been given in the Income Tax Act. Section 2(24), of the Act only indicates
inclusion of certain items which are given below:
i) Profits and Gains
ii) Dividend
iii) Income from voluntary contributions received by following:
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Fundamentals a) Any trust or institution which has been established for the purpose of
charitable or religions purposes
b) A scientific research association
c) A games or sports association
d) A charitable fund or a trust or institutions created for wholly public
religion purposes
e) Any university or other educational institution
f) Any hospital or other institution
iv) Perquisites or profits in lieu of salary to employees
v) Any special allowance or benefit besides perquisites to employees to meet
expenses for performing their duties
vi) Income from units of Unit Trust of India (tax free W.e.f. A Y. 2004-05)
vii) Income from units of Mutual Fund (tax free W.e.f. AY. 2004-05)
viii) Income from Marketing Association (W.e.f. AY. 2003-04)
ix) Any allowance granted to meet increased cost of living
x) Value of any benefit or perquisites received by any director of company or
any person having substantial interest in company or his relative
xi) Value of benefit or perquisite received by representative assessee
xii) Profits generated from any business or profession
xiii) Capital gain
xiv) Recovery of bad debts allowed in the past
xv) Refund of excise duty
xvi) Balancing charge
xvii) Any interest, salary, bonus, commission and other remuneration received
by partner of a firm
xviii) Amount received from winning of lottery, crossword puzzles, play cards
and horse race with effect from Assessment Year 2002-03. The
term ‘lottery’ shall include winnings through draws or any other ways.
Play cards and other games shall also include any game or any other
entertainment programme on televisions, for the purpose of winning the
prize
xix) Amount received from employees for contribution in following funds:
a) Any fund established under Employees State Insurance Act, 1948
b) Any fund established for labour welfare
c) Provident fund or superannuation fund for employees
xx) Profits from sale of license received under import control order, 1995
xxi) Cash subsidy in respect of export under any scheme of Government of
India
xxii) Sum received exceeding Rs. 50,000 from non-relative without
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xxiii) Sum received under Keyman Insurance Policy. This sum also includes Basic Concepts-I
bonus
xxiv) Income shall include the profits and gain of any business of banking
(including providing credit facilities) carried on by a co-operative society
with its members (W.e.f. A.Y. 2007-08)
xxv) Maximum amount of casual income upto Rs 10,000 is exempt from tax
deduction at source. However, there is no TDS on winnings from other
than horse races, gambling, or betting.
The above definitions of income are not comprehensive. Besides the above items,
other receipts and benefits are also treated incomes under Income-tax Act.
All receipts are not income. Only those receipts must be treated as incomes
which satisfy the guidelines laid down by various High Court and Supreme Court.
4) Income includes money that has become due though not received.
7) Income must come from outside. Pocket money received by a student from
his father cannot be termed as an income.
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Fundamentals
1.4 DEFINITION OF PERSON
The term “Person” is defined in Section 2(31) of the Act. It is an inclusive
definition implying list of entities which can be treated as a “person”. The term
person includes the following:
1) An individual, e.g., Ramesh, Hari, Sita, etc.
2) A Hindu Undivided Family
3) A Company
4) A Firm
5) An Association of Persons or a body of individuals whether incorporated or
not, e.g., co-operative society,
6) A Local Authority, e.g., Municipality, District Board, etc. and
7) Every artificial juridical person not falling within any of the categories
mentioned above.
It will, thus, be seen that the word person is defined in very wide terms. A minor
would also be included in the definition of persons in some circumstances. All
the persons described above are liable to pay income tax under the Income Tax
Act, 1961.
The Act has given a very wide definition of this term. Anyone who is even
remotely connected with the payment or refund of tax can be termed as assessee.
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Basic Concepts-I
1.6 PERMANENT ACCOUNT NUMBER
Permanent Account Number (PAN) is a number which identifies a particular
assessee to the Income Tax Department. It will not change even though the
assessee changes his place of residence and consequently the income tax office
which has jurisdiction over his place of business or residence.
Every person who is required to pay tax, either on his own behalf or on behalf of
another person, is required to have a Permanent Account Number. In case the
person has not already been allotted a PAN (if the income tax return happens to
be his first return), he is required to make an application in Form No. 49A to
the Assessing Officer seeking the number.
Ten Digit Permanent Account Number: The CBDT had introduced a new
scheme of allotment of computerized 10-digit permanent account number.
Therefore, everyone was required to apply for a fresh permanent account number
even if he had already been allotted an account number earlier. However, the
person to whom permanent account number, under the new series, had already
been allotted, were not required to apply for such number again.
The Assessing Officer may allot a PAN to any person who in his opinion is liable
to pay income tax. The assessee is required to quote the PAN not only on the
Return of Income but also on all the correspondence and documents relating to
the Income Tax Department. The Central Board of Direct Taxes has the powers
to prescribe the transactions, documents etc. on which the PAN must be
mentioned.
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Fundamentals d) TDS on casual income is exempted
i) Up to Rs. 10,000 ( )
ii) Fully ( )
iii) Up toRs.15, 000 ( )
e) A PAN number stands for
i) Permanent Account Number ( )
ii) Personal Account Number ( )
iii) Personal Access Number ( )
2) Define the term Person.
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3) Who is an ‘Assessee in default’?
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As a precaution, it should be pointed out here that there are a few exceptions to
the general rule that income earned in the previous year only is taxed in the
assessment year. These exceptions are explained in sub-section 1.9.
The net income so remaining after allowing all such deductions is termed as
total income which will be relevant for computation of tax liability. It is also
called Taxable Income.
Since, the assessee is at liberty to use any method of accounting, there is need
to ensure that the assessee does not change his method of accounting in a manner
that is prejudicial to the interests of the Revenue. The Income Tax Act, 1961,
therefore, provides in Section 145 that the income chargeable under the head
‘Profits and Gains of the Business or Profession” or ‘Income from other sources’
shall be computed in accordance with the method of accounting employed by
the assessee If, however, the Assessing Officer is of the opinion that
notwithstanding the correctness of the Accounts, the method employed is such
that it does not permit proper computation of income, the computation shall be
made upon such basis and in a manner that he may determine.
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Fundamentals It has been held that though the Assessing Officer may not accept the method of
Accounting employed by the assessee, he has no right to impose his own method
upon the assessee.
Bansilal Abirchand v. CIT 3 ITC 57 holds that if the Department has been
accepting the assessee’s method of accounting for several years, they cannot
arbitrarily seek to take him on a different basis in a particular year.
The term income is not exhaustively defined, and the Act simply enumerates
certain items which are included in the term ‘income’. Similarly, the term
‘person’ is also inclusively defined.
Assessment year is the current financial year in which income earned in the
immediately preceding financial year (known as previous year) is put to tax.
However, there are certain situations when income earned in a particular financial
year is put to tax, in the same year and the ITO does not wait for the next financial
year. Gross total income is arrived at by adding up taxable income from various
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heads. Out of Gross Total Income, certain deductions are allowed to arrive at Basic Concepts-I
Total Income which is put to tax.
The assessee can adopt either cash or accrual basis of accounting. However,
once the method is adopted it cannot be changed without the satisfaction of the
Assessing Officer.
Note: These questions and exercises will help you to understand the
unit better. Try to write answers for them. But do not submit your answers
to the University. These are for your practice only.
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