GST impact: What may get costlier, what may get cheaper

Here's a guide on what products and services may tentatively get costlier or cheaper.

GST: What could get costlier, what could get cheaper

Here’s how prices of goods could move after the new GST rates kick-in from July 1, 2017.

Cheaper Meals?

A restaurant bill now is a complex jumble of food costs, taxes on food and alcohol and services, cesses and service charges. After GST, you may expect eating out to be cheaper as a single tax will replace a welter of levies.

Costlier Calls

Your phone calls may become costlier. Phone bills will likely attract an 18 percent GST rate compared to the current 15 percent (including cesses).

Free state-borders

GST will subsume most state local levies, including the entry tax or octroi. Trucks will be able to move across state borders without queuing up for long hours to pay taxes. Municipalities and local bodies, however, can continue to collect local taxes. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation have, however, lifted the entry taxes for entering Mumbai after GST.

Costlier Services

Currently most services are taxed at a standard rate of 15 percent; these will turn costlier as the standard service tax rate is expected to go up to 18 percent.

How to Link Aadhaar card to PAN ?

As per a Supreme Court judgment passed on 9 June 2017, if you have Aadhaar, it is mandatory to link it to PAN and mention the same in your tax returns. However, if you don’t have Aadhaar, you can e-file tax returns without the same for FY2016-17.

Now you can link your Aadhaar and PAN through SMS also. The Income Tax Department has urged taxpayers to link their Aadhaar with their PAN, using an SMS-based facility.It can be done by sending an SMS to either 567678 or 56161.

Send SMS to 567678 or 56161 from your registered mobile number in following format:

UIDPAN<12 aadhaar="" digit=""><10 digit="" pan="">

Example: UIDPAN 123456789123 AKPLM2124M

People can also visit the official e-filing website of the department to link the two identities, in both the cases– identical names in the two databases or in case where there is a minor mismatch.

The Income Tax Department has made it easy for taxpayers to link their PAN with Aadhaar with just a 2 step process which does not even require  to login or register at the e- filing website. This facility can be used by anyone to link their Aadhaar with PAN.

2 step process to link Aadhaar with PAN

Step 1 :

Just go to www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in and click on the link on the left pane – Link Aadhaar

Step 2 :

Provide PAN, Aadhaar no. and ENTER NAME EXACTLY AS GIVEN IN AADHAAR CARD (avoid spelling mistakes) and submit. After verification from UIDAI which is the government website for Aadhaar, the linking will be confirmed.

In case of any minor mismatch in Aadhaar name provided, Aadhaar OTP will be required. Please ensure that the date of birth and gender in PAN and Aadhaar are exactly same.

In a rare case where Aadhaar name is completely different from name in PAN, then the linking will fail and taxpayer will be prompted to change the name in either Aadhaar or in PAN database.

The process of linking Aadhaar with PAN is also available after login to the income tax website.Following are the steps for this :

Step 1.

First register yourself at the income tax e filing portal, if you are not already registered.https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/

Step 2.

Log in to the e-Filing portal of the Income Tax Department by entering the log-in ID, password and date of birth

Step 3.

On logging in to the site, a pop up window will appear prompting you to link your PAN card with Aadhaar card. If you don’t see the popup, go to blue tab on the top bar named ‘Profile Settings’ and click on ‘Link Aadhaar’.

Step 4.

Details such as name, date of birth and gender will already be mentioned as per the details submitted at the time of registration on the e-Filing portal. Verify the details on screen with the ones mentioned on your Aadhaar card.

Step 5.

If the details match, enter your Aadhaar card number and captcha code and click on the “Link now” button.

Step 6.

A pop-up message will inform you that your Aadhaar card has been successfully linked to your PAN card.

Aadhaar-PAN linking: Your PAN card may not become invalid right away if it is not done by 30th June

The status of Aadhaar is the most confusing thing in India right now. While there are multiple notifications coming from the government making it mandatory for various services, the Supreme Court is hearing cases against the move and has been making observations or giving directives on the way ahead.

The government seems itself caught in a legal maze. So are the common people. At least that is what one can make out of the supreme confusion that is ruling over linking of PAN and Aadhaar.

Over the last 2 days there have been reports saying 30 June is the last day for linking both identity proofs. However, there are fresh reports saying 30 June is not the last date and the government is yet to announce a deadline.

In all this, the government has remained silent, without issuing any clarification.

However, let’s get one thing out of the way.

It is mandatory to link your Aadhaar card to your PAN card.

For those who do not have Aadhaar.

According to the Supreme Court, if you do not have an Aadhaar or do not wish to get an Aadhaar as of now, you don’t need to worry, at least for now. Your PAN will not be canceled in such a case. "Only a partial relief by the court has been given to those who do not have Aadhaar and who do not wish to obtain Aadhaar for the time being, that their PAN will not be cancelled so that other consequences under the I-T Act for filing to quote PAN may not arise," the CBDT had said in a circular.

For those who have an Aadhaar and PAN, I recommend that you get the numbers linked as early as possible. If you read the latest government notification you will realise that Aadhaar-PAN linking will become mandatory from 1 July and not before 1 July.

What if you can’t make it by tonight? Your PAN will become invalid, but only eventually.

According to a report in The Economic Times: After July 1, the linking will become mandatory and the government may declare a date after which the PAN not linked to Aadhaar will become invalid. The government has not declared that date yet.

Fear that PAN will become invalid has forced many to visit the Income Tax website and link their cards. The website became accessible for several hours due to high traffic. Even tax and investment experts say that there is confusion over regarding the issue. The government should have in no uncertain terms explained the consequences of not linking.

One thing is for sure. Since the government has not declared the deadline, you still have time to get it done. If you have errors in your cards, we suggest you get them fixed quickly and get the cards linked.

Even if the PAN becomes invalid immediately, your life is not going to come to stand still. Of course, there will be some pain points. You will have difficulties to make some financial transactions, which require PAN, or even file returns.

However, for those who have Aadhaar, it is better to go ahead and link it with PAN. That makes all your dealings with the government easier

How to submit your EPF claim online?

UAN, Aadhaar, bank account details and a registered, active mobile phone number—that’s what you need to submit a provident fund claim online

Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has been on an overdrive in the past few months in an attempt to become more user friendly. Among its most recent changes is that you can now submit a claim online. This process was earlier mired in paperwork and delay. This comes soon after EPFO introduced a composite claim form for submitting withdrawal requests, and did away with the need to submit supporting documents and certificates for partial withdrawals.

Making the claims process online is expected to reduce the time taken to process a claim. “With this, we hope to reduce the turnaround time from 20 days to 10 days. Even as the subscriber places the request electronically, the process is still manual at our end,” said V.P. Joy, central provident fund commissioner, EPFO. The process is now live on the EPFO website (http://bit.ly/2q1pHG6).

Here’s a look at what you need to do before submitting a claim online, based on the process explained to us by EPFO officials. Whether this works or not, is still to be tested.

Basic requirements

If you want to go online for your claims, you should have activated your Universal Account Number (UAN). Also, the mobile phone number you used to activate UAN should be in use. You need to seed your Aadhaar details into the EPFO database so that electronic know-your-customer (e-KYC) verification can take place through a one-time password, which the Aadhaar authority will send, when you submit the claim. You can proceed only if you have registered or linked your Aadhaar. Otherwise, the website will prompt you to link your Aadhaar with UAN.

Apart from this, you also need to input your bank account details so that once the claim is settled, the money can be transferred online to the account.

“We have about four crore (40 million) contributing members. Out of this, about 1.8 crore (18 million) have Aadhaar and bank account linked with UAN,” said Joy.

If you have not been an EPFO member for at least 5 years, you also need to seed your permanent account number (PAN). “Only those individuals whose Aadhaar information has been verified and three data entries match—name, date of birth and gender—will be eligible to use the online claim service,” said Joy.

So, do the background work if you have a claim coming anytime soon. The Aadhaar-based composite claim form will be used for online claim submission.

In February 2017, the EPFO introduced a single-page claim form subsuming the erstwhile Forms 19, 10C and 31 for complete withdrawal, pension withdrawal benefit and partial withdrawals, respectively. But there are two types of composite form: Aadhaar and non-Aadhaar.

Online Claim Submission

You can submit your claim online using the Aadhaar composite claim form. The online version will be pre-filled with your basic information since you would be able to access it only after logging in to the EPF member portal (http://bit.ly/2q1pHG6). You will then have to select the type of withdrawal you wish to make.

While the forms that were there earlier are no longer used, the types of withdrawals remain the same, and each has its own set of conditions that need to be fulfilled to avail a withdrawal.

Final settlement: For final settlement (for which you needed to fill Form 19 earlier), you will need to provide the date of joining and date of exit (last date of employment). This should be available in the EPFO database. You should not be working at the time of submission of the claim in an establishment that is covered under the Employees’ Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952.

A claim for final settlement can be submitted only after 2 months of the last date of employment.

Partial withdrawal: Form 31 was used for this earlier. Your date of joining should be available in the EPFO database.

Pension withdrawal benefit: This was earlier done under Form 10C. Your total period of service should be more than 6 months. These conditions are in addition to those required for a final settlement. Also note, these rules are for withdrawal of the amount that goes from your employer’s contribution to the Employees’ Pension Scheme corpus.

Once you make your selection and are eligible for a particular withdrawal based on EPFO database, you will have to authenticate your KYC through an OTP. You will receive the password on the mobile number registered for Aadhaar with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

Also remember that you can get the payment from EPFO for your claim only into the bank account registered with it and which is shown in your UAN member interface. If, for some reason, you want to use some other bank account to get the claim, do not submit the claim online; use the physical process instead, or get the bank account details changed through your current employer.

Do remember that if you have been an EPF member for less than 5 continuous years, the maturity corpus is taxable and you will also need to furnish proof of PAN. If you are making the claim offline, fill the form and submit it along with a cancelled cheque, without employer’s certification.

The online claim process is not available to those who do not have Aadhaar. The non-Aadhaar composite claim form needs more details like date of birth, father’s name and bank account details. Apart from your signature, it has to be certified by your employer.

Why you need to start your retirement planning early?

Experts believe that financial planning should always start as soon as we become financially independent. This helps in building a sizeable corpus over time and is also easy on our pockets.

All our lives we toil hard to provide for our family. Daily life and the stress of work keep us occupied for most of our active life and we rarely get the time to indulge in our passions.

In retirement, we take a permanent break from employment. We leave behind the rigours of the 9-to-5 life. This is the time we must indulge our whims. And why not? After all, we have completed our financial duties towards our family.

But is retirement actually all play and rest? What about the daily and all-too-necessary medical expenses? How do we meet them in the absence of income? Have you thought about it?

Most of us live in the present. After completing our education, we hanker after the perfect job which would keep our career graph on an upward trend.

Getting married, starting a family, weekend hangouts with friends, spend on gadgets, car and a house, etc. feature on our to-do lists.

In this scenario, retirement planning is altogether given a miss. Why would we, in our 20s and 30s, bother about an event that’s a good three to four decades away? This, sadly, is a risky line of thinking.

Being young is massively beneficial to solving the problem of retirement planning. But this benefit is rarely well understood. Experts believe that financial planning should always start as soon as we become financially independent.

This helps in building a sizeable corpus over time and is also easy on our pockets. Starting out early on planning retirement ought to be mandatory for everyone, especially those working in the private sector who would not receive a pension in retirement.

And to persuade you further, here are two solid reasons to get started early.

The power of compounding

Compounding is earning interest on the interest already earned. In compounding, any interest you earn on your investment would be reinvested with the principal and the aggregate corpus would then earn future interests.

Sounding like a high school mathematics lessons? Compounding works miracles if the time horizon of investments is long. Over a short tenure the effect of compounding is not as miraculous as it is over a long tenure.

For this very reason, early retirement planning is stressed upon. When you start building a retirement corpus early on, you tend to stay invested for a long period where compounding works its wonders.

On retirement, the corpus generated is many times the investment made. Let us see the effect by an example.

Investor	Mr A	Mr B
Amount of investment	Rs 5,000 per month	Rs 5,000 per month
Age at which investment commenced	30 years	40 years
Targeted retirement age when the investment would be redeemed	60 years	60 years
Investment return (assumed)	12% per annum	12% per annum
Corpus at retirement (60 years)	Rs 1.75 crore approximately	Rs 49 lakh

While Mr A started his retirement planning at the age of 30 years, Mr B delayed the investment by a mere 10 years and the difference in the corpus generated is 3.5 times!

Both invested the same amount and got the same rate on their investments and yet there is a vast difference in the corpus. It is only because of the effect of compounding that the corpus has such a difference.

Now let’s assume that both Mr A and B require monthly annuity till 75 years of age, i.e. for 15 years. If we assume that the corpus or annuity does not attract any return, Mr A can avail a monthly inflow of Rs 97, 000 approximately while Mr B would only get an inflow of Rs 28,000. Would such a low inflow be sufficient to meet the expenses in future?

Affordability & risk

Though we want to invest towards a retirement plan, affordability of investments is a major concern. When we start young, we can create a sizeable corpus with small monthly investments which are affordable.

As stated above. Rs 5,000 per month is affordable for most of us. However, since Mr B’s corpus is turning out to be low, he might have to invest a higher monthly amount and assume more short-term risk if he wants to match Mr A’s corpus.

To arrive at Mr A’s corpus, Mr B would have to make a monthly investment of Rs 17,700 approximately, much higher than an affordable amount of Rs 5,000.

All said, the old maxim holds true even for retirement planning - the early bird catches the worm. The sooner you start retirement planning, the easier and better it would be for you to accumulate the desired corpus.

Systematic Investment Plans of mutual funds are very well suited for such retirement planning as they provide attractive returns.

Moreover, with the Systematic Withdrawal Plan option, you can redeem your corpus periodically for the much needed monthly inflow or withdraw a major proportion of the corpus for meeting any contingency. So, start today and reap the benefits of being early.

Paper woes to end: Online EPF withdrawal, pension fixation a reality by May 2017

EPFO has an ambitious plan to settle the claims within few hours after filing of application.

Retirement fund body EPFO is expected to launch online facility for settlement of claims, including EPF withdrawal and pension fixation, by May this year to put an end to tedious paper work by its members.

At present, the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) receive close to 1 crore applications manually for settlement of EPF withdrawal claim, pension fixation or getting group insurance benefit by deceased persons.

"The process of connecting all field offices with a central server is going on. We may introduce the facility for online submission of all types of applications and claims like EPF withdrawal and pension settlement by May this year," EPFO's Central Provident Fund.

Joy said that all EPFO offices would be connected to central server in couple of months following which the facility of online submission of all sort of applications can be introduced.

EPFO has an ambitious plan to settle the claims within few hours after filing of application. For instance, it has plans to settle the EPF withdrawal claim within three hours of filing of online application.

As per the scheme, EPFO is required to settle all claims within 20 days from filing of the application for settlement of pension or EPF withdrawal.

Under the pilot, the EPFO has already connected its around 50 field offices with the central server.

In a recent review meeting on digitisation in the EPFO, the field formations and Information Services wing has been asked to link all 123 offices with the central server so that subscribers can be provided services online.

EPFO has made it mandatory for all subscribers as well as pensioners to submit their Aadhaar number. This will help linking EPF account, pension account, bank account and Aadhaar number which would eventually facilitate providing a host of online facilities to subscribers like online withdrawal and fixation of pension.

The body has recently extended the deadline for submitting Aadhaar for its subscribers and pensioners till March 31, 2017. Seeding of Aadhaar number with the EPF, pension and bank accounts is required for settling claims online to reduce public interface for bringing in more transparency.

New Pension scheme rules: How to invest wisely now!

From April 1, subscribers will be able to change investment option & asset allocation twice a year, instead of once.

Until now, subscribers in the National Pension Scheme, NPS, could change their investment option (active or auto choice) and asset allocation (the percentage allocation of your investments to different asset classes such as equities, corporate bonds, government securities and alternative investments) once in a financial year.

According to a recent circular from the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority, PFRDA, from April 1, investors will be allowed to change these options twice a year.

However, subscribers will still be able to change their pension fund manager only once.

Experts say that while this move will provide greater flexibility, subscribers need to use it judiciously.

NPS allows two approaches for investing the subscriber's money. One is the active choice option.

Here, the subscriber can decide which of the four asset classes s/he wants to invest in: Equities, corporate bonds, government securities and alternative investments.

S/he can also choose the allocation of her/his funds to each of these asset classes, provided s/he adheres to the cap of 50 per cent in equities and 5 per cent in alternative investments.

The other option is called auto choice-life-cycle fund. Here, the allocation to different types of funds changes automatically based on the subscriber's age.

Three life-cycle funds are available:

• LC75 or aggressive life-cycle fund where the equity allocation is 75 per cent till age 35 and then reduces gradually;
• LC50 or moderate life-cycle fund where the equity allocation is 50 per cent till 35 and then falls;
• and LC 25 or conservative life-cycle fund, where the equity exposure is 25 per cent till 35 and then declines.

Being able to change one's asset allocation twice in a year could be especially useful in extreme market conditions.

"A savvy investor can use the opportunity to move from an overvalued asset class to one that is relatively cheaper," says Anil Rego, chief executive officer and founder, Right Horizons.

Experts, however, warn that investors should use the greater flexibility that has been provided in a judicious manner.

"Look closely at your portfolio to see whether you need to act. Just because you have the option to change things twice doesn't mean you have to exercise it," says Vishal Dhawan, chief financial planner, Plan Ahead Wealth Advisors.

Rego feels that too much fiddling of asset allocation by non-savvy investors could be counter-productive, and they should just let the short-term fluctuations in the market play out.

Some experts, while welcoming these changes, feel there is scope for PFRDA to go further.

"Subscribers should be allowed to change their allocation any number of times in a year. They are billed for these transactions, so why have any limits at all?" says Manoj Nagpal, chief executive officer, Outlook Asia Capital.

Also, at present investments in all types of asset classes have to go to a single fund manager.

Nagpal feels this is one constraint that should be done away with at the earliest. "The subscriber should be able to choose the equity fund of one pension fund manager, corporate bond fund of another, gilt fund of a third, and so on," he says.

Greater choice

• You can now change your investment choice and asset allocation twice in a year.
• Savvy investors can use this to reduce their allocation to an asset class that has become overvalued.
• Look closely at your portfolio and make a change only if it's essential.

Avoid these five common mistakes made by investors

Know the mistakes generally committed by the investors and then try to avoid committing them.

In life, everyone makes mistakes. And it is extremely evident and specifically true when it comes to investment decisions, as there is always an element of uncertainty involved. With all of the historical data and experience we possess, there is still no computer program or individual that will get investment decisions ‘spot on’ all the time and after every bull run and a bear market we are all the more wiser. Herein, we would like to highlight some common mistakes made by investors and we are sure as we go by, we will learn from some newer mistakes in future. 

Being impatient and emotional: PATIENCE! PATIENCE! And more PATIENCE! This is the key to investing. And along with patience, a lot of control on emotions. The one who masters this is the one who makes money.

Debt for the long-term and equity for the short-term: Investors are comfortable in PPF (15 years); tax-free bonds (10-15 years); fixed deposits (5 years). But the moment we talk of investment in equity, the investor’s time horizon is one month to a year and the moment the price drops, panic sets in. Actually, in reality it should be the other way around - long term investments should go into equities and short term investments into debt.

Selling winners and holding losers: No one likes to make a loss but sometimes it makes sense to book a loss rather than continue with the decision. It is not possible to make profits in equity all the time. The key to investment is to have more winners than losers. However, a majority of the time investors hold on to losers and sell winners. A classic case is that of Kingfisher Airlines. The stock price was at a high of Rs 73 in 2009 and last traded closer to Re. 1 in June 2015. There would be umpteen investors holding this stock hoping that it will reach their purchase price.

Buying equity on herd mentality: A majority of investors buy equities just because a friend recommends it or based on a media report. Many would not even be aware of what the company does. We do not understand anything about mobiles, clothes, cars, etc. However, we always do some research before buying. In fact, even for a simple bank deposit or company fixed deposit, we check what the interest rates are offered on a number of similar products and then invest. However, in the case of equity, we just follow blindly what a friend or the media states. 

Ignoring inflation and taxation: These two go hand in hand and are the most important factors which we need to consider in any investment. Firstly, our focus should be on the post–tax returns. It is extremely relevant for investors who are in the highest tax slab. Secondly, the focus should be on to earn Real Returns [Actual Return (post-tax) less Inflation]. For example, if you invest in a bank fixed deposit which returns 9% and assuming inflation is 8%, your real return could vary from -1.7% to 0.1%, depending on the tax-bracket you fall under.

Bottom Line: Investing mistakes are a part and parcel of the investment process. Knowing what they are, when you're committing them and how to avoid them should help you to succeed as an investor. To avoid committing them, develop a well-thought out, systematic plan and stick to it.

ELSS Mutual Fund - A Tax Saver & Wealth Generator

Most of the tax saving instruments under Section 80C are savings oriented instruments with returns after adjusting for inflation either in the negative or slightly positive. The exceptions to this are the ULIPs (Life and Pension Funds) and the ELSS Mutual Funds. The advantage with ELSS compared to the ULIPs is the frequency (mostly a single investment or a monthly investment for a year) and term for investment, for getting good returns.

What is an ELSS?
An ELSS (Equity Linked Savings Scheme) is a mutual fund that has to invest a minimum of 80% in Equity Shares. The balance 20% can be in debt, money market instruments, cash or even more equity. There is a 3 year lock-in period for the ELSS mutual funds. Post the 36 months, the funds remain invested and work like any other open-ended mutual fund.

Why an ELSS?
It has been an established fact that in the long run equity gives a much higher inflation adjusted returns when compared to any other investment except for maybe real estate. The top 5 ELSS funds have given returns from 22% to 26% compounded annually over the past 5 years. This is again higher than the market (Nifty) returns over the past 5 years which is at 19%.

ELSS is part of the Section 80C instruments which are cumulatively eligible for a deduction from income up to Rs.1L. This gives the tax payers benefits from 10% to 30% (excluding the educational cess) based on their current tax slab.

The return (maturity and the dividend [(if opted for]) from the ELSS is also tax free under the present EEE (Exempt - Exempt - Exempt) regime.

The 3 year lock-in period makes sure one stays invested. Otherwise in a normal mutual fund one tends to withdraw in case of any monetary requirement.

The lock-in period also helps the fund managers to plan their investments better and also to hold on to valuable investments as they do not have to worry about sudden redemption pressures.
The above logic is proved in the higher returns achieved by the ELSS funds when compared to the market returns. Wealth creation because of this is much better than most of the other mutual funds. Only some sector based mutual funds have given better returns than the ELSS fund in the past 5 years.

Options with the ELSS
Salaried people with a tight budget can opt for a monthly investment (SIP using ECS). The automatic investment from the bank through ECS makes it an easy way to invest.
Those who want an income in between can opt for the dividend option. This is particularly suitable for senior citizens. Also, the ELSS gives a tax free return compared to a bank or company deposit, which is taxable.

Limitations with ELSS
The investment in an ELSS cannot be switched or closed before the 3 years are completed form the date of investment. During market downturns, this becomes a limitation as one can only sit and watch the funds go down. One has the option of averaging when the market goes down, but an investment to save tax may not be required in the year in which the market is going down.

The lock-in works negatively also for the monthly investment because the lock-in is calculated from the date of the investment and not from the date the scheme was started. This means that the 12th month's investment can be withdrawn only on the 48th month. This is a disadvantage compared to ULIPs, where the lock-in is from the date of start of the scheme.

ELSS - a favoured option
Most fund houses start an ELSS regular investment at Rs.500/- per month. Single investments start generally at Rs.5000/-. This makes ELSS accessible to all tax payers. With the compulsory lock-in giving better returns than other investments, even the most risk averse can look at an exposure to the ELSS fund for their tax benefits.

Due date of filing income tax return for FY 2016-17(AY 2017-18) is

31st July 2017 for Individuals

30th September 2017 for Businesses

(This is income tax return for the financial year 2016-17. Applicable for income earned from April 1st, 2016 to March 31st, 2017).

Important Due Dates of Income tax return filing for the year 2017

Whenever we talk about income tax, there are various kind of compulsory tax formalities that needs to be followed by a person and that too within the specified due dates prescribed; such as filing of income tax returns, paying advance tax on time.

Here is the TAX CALENDAR for 2017. This has important Tax Due and income tax return filing dates for the year 2017.                                               

TAX CALENDAR 2017
15th March, 2017	(a)    Fourth Instalment of Advance Tax due for the FY 2016-17
	(b)    Due date for the whole amount of Advance Tax for FY 2016-17 for taxpayers covered under presumptive scheme of Section 44AD
31st March, 2017	(a)    Last date for declaration of undisclosed income under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojna.
	(b)    Due date for the payment of second instalment(i.e. 25% of tax, surcharge and penalty) under Income Declaration Scheme,2016
15th June, 2017	Due date for the First instalment of Advance Tax for the FY 2017-18
31st July, 2017	Due date for filing Income tax return for FY 2016-17 for all persons except :
	(a)    Companies
	(b)    Non-Companies whose books are required to be audited
	(c)     Working partner of a firm whose accounts are required to be audited
15th Sep , 2017	Due date for the Second instalment of Advance Tax for the FY 2017-18
30thsep, 2017	Due date for filing of  Audit report/Income tax return for the FY 2016-17 for the following:
	(a)companies
	(b)Non-Companies Whose books are required to be audited
30thsep,2017	Due date for payment of the last instalment(i.e. 50% of tax, surcharge and penalty) under Income Disclosure Scheme, 2016
30th Nov, 2017	(a)    Due date for filing Audit report for the FY 2016-17 in case of a person who is required to submit a report pertaining to international or specified domestic transactions under section 92E
	(b)    Due date for report to be furnished in Form 3CEB in respect of international and specified domestic transactions.
15th Dec, 2017	Due date for the third instalment of Advance Tax for the FY 2017-18

Income Tax Slab Rates for FY 2017-18 (AY 2018-19)

Income Tax Slab Rates for FY 2017-18(AY 2018-19)

For FY 2017-18, the slab rate for income tax up to Rs. 5 lakh has gone down from 10% to 5%.

PART I: Income Tax Slab for Individual Tax Payers & HUF (Less Than 60 Years Old) (Both Men & Women)

Income Slab	Tax Rate
Income up to Rs 2,50,000*	No tax
Income from Rs 2,50,000 – Rs 5,00,000	5%
Income from Rs 5,00,000 – 10,00,000	20%
Income more than Rs 10,00,000	30%
Surcharge: 10% of income tax, where total income exceeds Rs.50 lakh up to Rs.1 crore. Surcharge: 15% of income tax, where the total income exceeds Rs.1 crore.
Cess: 3% on total of income tax + surcharge.
*Income tax exemption limit for FY 2017-18 is up to Rs. 2,50,000 for individual & HUF other than those covered in Part(II) or (III)

PART II: Income Tax Slab for Senior Citizens (60 Years Old Or More but Less than 80 Years Old)(Both Men & Women)

Income Slab	Tax Rate
Income up to Rs 3,00,000*	No tax
Income from Rs 3,00,000 – Rs 5,00,000	5%
Income from Rs 5,00,000 – 10,00,000	20%
Income more than Rs 10,00,000	30%
Surcharge: 10% of income tax, where total income exceeds Rs.50 lakh upto Rs.1 crore. Surcharge: 15% of income tax, where the total income exceeds Rs.1 crore.
Cess: 3% on total of income tax + surcharge.
*Income tax exemption limit for FY 2017-1 is up to Rs. 3,00,000 other than those covered in Part(I) or (III)

PART III: Income Tax Slab for Senior Citizens(80 Years Old Or More) (Both Men & Women)

Income Slab	Tax Rate
Income up to Rs 2,50,000*	No tax
Income up to Rs 5,00,000*	No tax
Income from Rs 5,00,000 – 10,00,000	20%
Income more than Rs 10,00,000	30%
Surcharge: 15% of income tax, where total income exceeds Rs.1 crore.
Cess: 3% on total of income tax + surcharge.
*Income tax exemption limit for FY 2017-18 is up to Rs. 5,00,000 other than those covered in Part(I) or (II)

Please also note that there is also a tax rebate of up to Rs.2,500 for a taxable income up to Rs. 3.5 lakhs.

INCOME TAX SLAB FOR DOMESTIC COMPANIES FOR FY 2017-18 (AY 2018-19)

The tax rate for companies with an annual turnover of up to Rs 50 crore has been brought down to 25% from 30%.

Besides the above change, other rates remain the same as were in the previous year. Please see the income tax slab for domestic companies for FY 2016-17.