NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has notified new income tax returns (ITR) forms for the assessment year 2023-24, which are almost similar to the previous forms with some minor changes. There are seven ITR forms for different classes of taxpayers. This is not in line with the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announcement in the Budget 2024 when she had proposed next-generation common Income Tax Return form for all taxpayers.
“I now come to my direct tax proposals. These proposals aim to maintain continuity and stability of taxation, further simplify and rationalise various provisions to reduce the compliance burden, promote entrepreneurial spirit and provide tax relief to citizens…..We intend to further improve this, roll out a next-generation Common IT Return Form for taxpayer convenience, and plan to strengthen the grievance redressal mechanism,” Sitharaman had said. As per the former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India(ICAI), Ved Jain, this time around the government notified the ITR forms well in advance. Earlier, it would even notify the forms after the assessment year would begin.
There is a separate schedule for virtual digital assets (VDA) that requires details like date of acquisition, date of transfer head under which income to be taxed, cost of acquisition for transfer of VDA. Other minor tweaks are there in the general information section and tax collection at source (TCS) section. “No significant changes have been made to the forms notified this year. A separate “Schedule – VDA” has been added to report income from virtual digital asset such as crypto currency. Tax provisions for taxation of VDAs was introduced from FY 2022-23 hence the addition of new schedule is in line with the expectation,” Saraswathi Kasturirangan, Partner with Deloitte India said.
Separate schedule for virtual assets
There is a separate schedule for virtual digital assets that requires details like date of acquisition, date of transfer head under which income to be taxed, cost of acquisition for transfer of VDA. Minor tweaks are there in general information section, tax collection at source section