The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has taken a number of decisions over last three months with the objective of providing better taxpayer services, improving ease of doing business and reducing the burden of compliance on the tax payer.

Some of the significant decisions taken are

• Acceptance of A.P Shah Committee’s recommendations regarding applicability of MAT on Foreign Institutional Investors/Foreign Portfolio Investors (FII/FPI).
• Decision that MAT will not apply to foreign companies having no PE in India.
• Simplification of procedures for submission of Form No 15G and Form No 15H for furnishing self declaration for lower deduction or no deduction of tax.
• Notification of Transfer Pricing Rules to incorporate “range concept” and use of “multi year data” to reduce litigation on transfer pricing issues.
• Launching of “e-sahyog” Pilot Project to provide online facility to resolve mismatch of prepaid taxes in Income Tax Returns.
• Setting up of Committee with a view to simplify the provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
• Phasing out plan of deductions under the Income Tax Act with reduction in tax rates for corporate taxpayers- extension of time for submission of comments.
• Notification of Income Computation and Disclosures Standards (ICDS) under section 145(2) of the Income Tax Act.
• Notification regarding income from off-shore Rupee Denominated Bonds.
• Decision to expedite issue of refunds below ₹ 50,000/- for A.Y. 2013-14 and    2014-15  for cases not selected for scrutiny.
• Monetary limits for filing appeal by the Income Tax Department before Tribunal and High Courts enhanced from ₹ 4 lakh and ₹ 10 Lakh to ₹ 10 lakh and ₹ 20 lakh respectively with retrospective effect.

Appeal thresholds for tax department appeals raised, reshaping litigation scope and administrative review for taxpayers. Central Board of Direct Taxes adopted measures to ease compliance and reduce litigation by clarifying Minimum Alternate Tax applicability for foreign investors and excluding MAT for foreign companies without a permanent establishment, notified transfer pricing rules adopting a range concept and multi year data, simplified self declaration procedures for lower deduction, launched an online pilot to reconcile prepaid tax mismatches, issued Income Computation and Disclosures Standards, addressed tax treatment of offshore rupee bonds, expedited small refunds, and raised departmental appeal thresholds while forming a committee to simplify the Income Tax framework.