The authorities in the UK are implementing a cut in the top rate on income tax from 50 pence in the pound to 45 pence.

Chancellor George Osborne has announced the reduction in the highest level of income tax as part of the 2012 Budget. The reduction will benefit people earning more than £150,000 in the country. The government will also implement other tax and benefit changes including a freeze on the level of income that pensioners can earn before taxes are imposed on them, from 6 April.

New Delhi, March 13 : The government Wednesday said 73,388 taxpayers have defaulted on payments aggregating to Rs. 3,859 crore in the current financial year and steps would be taken to penalise them.

Taxpayers have defaulted on payments after filing self-assessment returns.

"Filing a return without paying the admitted amount of tax that is payable will render such taxpayer an assessee in default under the provisions of the Income Tax Act. Such taxpayers who default in payment of self-assessment tax may invite penal consequences," the finance ministry said in a statement.

According to a new survey, a majority of salaried taxpayers across industries in the country want the government to increase the tax exemption level to at least Rs. 3 lakhs in the upcoming union budget.

A survey conducted by Assocham showed that taxpayers also want Finance Minister P Chidambaram to include deductions like medical and educational allowances in the Budget. The survey showed that more than 89 per cent of the participants believe that tax free income slab has not moved in according with the real inflation

Shell India, the Indian arm of global petrochemical and energy giant Shell, has termed income tax (I-T) department's tax evasion claims as "absurd," claiming that it did not evade taxes.

Indian income tax authorities sent a notice to Shell India alleging that the petrochemical and energy giant evaded tax by undervaluing shares issued to its parent firm, Shell Gas BV, for equity infusion of around Rs 87 crore in 2009.

IIndian income tax (I-T) department's share transfer pricing order that accuses Royal Dutch Shell Plc of tax evasion is based on incorrect interpretation, and is contrary to the finance ministry's foreign direct investment drive, according to the Indian arm of Anglo-Dutch oil giant.

The share transfer pricing order by the Indian tax authorities is related to the issue of 870 million shares transferred Shell India to sole parent Shell Gas BV in March 2009.

Liquor baron Ponty Chadha had hit the front page three months back as the Income Tax department conducted raids at various properties owned and managed by the group. The earlier reports had estimated nearly Rs 175 crore of undisclosed funds during the raid.

As per recent reports, IT department has received Rs 54 crore as tax from Ponty Chadha group. As per news agency PTI sources, the income tax department will also collect penalty on the undisclosed income.

Saturday was distinguished as ‘Misery Day’ by the doctors across the city. This was done because the doctors were not happy with the tax hike of 5 percent on healthcare in the recent health budget. They have shown their disapproval and gathered near the Governor’s house showing their discontent.

Dr. Devi Shetty, a city based cardiologist, has stated that a patient who operated for a heart surgery will have to pay Rs.5, 000 to Rs.10, 000 more with the introduction of the proposed service tax.  And the tax for the cancer patients for their operation will be more than 20000.

Indians may soon be paying Goods and Service Tax (GST). Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee is very keen to get this bill passed. According to reports, finance ministry is on its way to introduce the Goods and Service Tax bill to public.

For this, the government has planned to bring Goods and Service Tax constitutional amendment bill for the Cabinet approval coming Thursday.

Once this bill gets approval from the Cabinet, this will be presented before the assembly. Business news channel CNBC-TV18 reported that a cabinet note has been circulated to all ministries about GST amendment bill.

Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee described loyal taxpayers as engines of economy. Speaking to Indian Revenue Services probationers, he insisted them to treat taxpayer as a client not as enemy.

He said, "The assessee is no longer considered an adversary; committed taxpayers are the engines of our economy and therefore important clients of Revenue Department".

Finance minister was addressing probationers at Parliament House Complex in New Delhi. He deemed that comfort zone of taxpayer should be considerably enhanced, while at the same time punishing serious offenders and evaders.

From next week, there will be an inspection by the Income Tax department. They will investigate the investments and tax payments of some high-networth individuals. These people were supposedly duped in the Rs 400 crore fraud at Citibank.

Hero Corporate Services (Rs 13.75 crore), OKS Sapan Tech (Rs 2 crore) and Satyam Auto (Rs 25 crore) were some of the big names involved in this fraud case.

The Income-Tax department had called above 20 such investors whose tax return is filed in the national capital and Gurgaon.

Many I-T offices including the one in Chandigarh are involved in the probe to determine the flow of money and ensure if taxes have been avoided by these individuals.

The apex accounting body ICAI has announced to set up centres for filing returns and tax-related documents electronically. The will be helpful implementing goods and services tax (GST) effectively.

A raid by the income tax department at the residence of IAS Officer BL Agrawal of Chhattisgarh has found that the officer has 220 bank accounts and assets worth millions of rupees.

He had opened these accounts in many fake names as well as in the names of his domestic helps. Apart from his residence, raids were also conducted on the business establishments of his relatives on Thursday.

The Centre on Monday indicated that it wants the inclusion of petroleum products and alcohol in the proposed goods and services tax regime (GST). The states have however expressed concerns over its implementation.

The centre also wants to include purchase tax, electricity duty and other local taxes in the GST regime and has set up a target turnover of Rs 10 lakh.

The decision paper was released by the Empowered Committee (EC) of state finance ministers on GST and the centre responded by saying that it wants uniform rates of taxes both at centre and the state levels.

According to a senior government official, the goods and services tax (GST) will offer relief to the tax payers by 25-30 percent. The GST is planned to be levied from the next financial year across the country and would be charged between 17 to 18 percent.

The revenue secretary, Mr. P V Bhide has informed that the launch of GST will help in removing inefficiencies and multiplicities in the current tax regime, which in order help in reducing the tax burden to 25 -30 percent.

The Finance Minister, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee has informed that the economy is expected to rise by 7.5 to 8 percent during the current financial year, while he expressed concern on the rising food prices in the country.

The Finance Minister presented a review in the parliament in the last week, which stated that economic growth rate during this year is expected to go beyond the 7.75 percent mark as compared to the 6.7 percent registered in the 2008-09 period.

Before the global recession started, Indian economy was growing at 9 percent, which decreased to 6.7 percent during 2008-09.

The Direct tax collections have been registered an increase of 3.7% to Rs 1,83,822 crore, as compared to Rs 1,77,251 crore in the first eight months of the current financial year.

Against the tax collection target of Rs 3,70,000 crore set by the government for this year, only half has been attained. In order to reach this target, the revenue department will have to collect the same amount of tax in the next four months.

Indian fiscal deficit, according to the Controller General of Accounts, stood at 2.45 trillion rupees for the period between April to October against 1.17 trillion rupees in the corresponding period last year. It accounts for 61 percent of the full-year target by the Government of India.

Net tax collection during the period was not encouraging and declined 8.1% to 2.14 trillion rupees from 2.32 trillion rupees. It represents decline in tax payer’s earnings due to global slowdown.

Government is not in hurry to implement new tax regime and it will thoroughly examine the tax structure and its impacts before introducing it in 2011.

The statement was made by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee while discussing the matter with a group of industry representatives. He said that provisions of capital gains tax on NRIs, double taxation avoidance agreements, taxation of foreign firms and charitable organizations would be scrutinized to address all grievances.

The new Direct Tax Code, unveiled last week, proposes drastic changes in the structure of Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT), the minimum amount of tax to be paid by any company if its tax liability on total taxable income falls short of 15 per cent.

Under new norms, MAT will be charged on the company's gross assets including fixed assets, capital work-in-progress and book value of all other assets, instead of the book profits while there will be no provision of MAT credit.

India reported 3.65 per cent increase in its direct tax collection for the first quarter of current financial year ended June30, 2009; driven by high base effect of significant growth in April-June 2008. The country's direct tax kitty grew over 38% in the first quarter of 2008-09.

A press release maintains, "Lower growth in net tax collection was mainly on account of higher tax refund outgo of 52.01 per cent at Rs 17,600 crore in the present quarter, against Rs 11,578 crore in the first quarter last fiscal."