Direct Taxes in India

Taxes in India

·        Direct Taxes:-

These types of taxes are directly imposed & paid to Government of India. There has been a steady rise in the net Direct Tax collections in India over the years, which is healthy signal. Direct taxes, which are imposed by the Government of India, are:

(1)   Income Tax:-

Income tax, this tax is mostly known to everyone. Every individual whose total income exceeds taxable limit has to pay income tax based on prevailing rates applicable time to time.

By doing investment in certain scheme you can save Income Tax.

(2)   Capital Gains Tax:-

Capital Gain tax as name suggests it is tax on gain in capital. If you sale property, shares, bonds & precious material etc. and earn profit on it within predefined time frame you are supposed to pay capital gain tax. The capital gain is the difference between

the money received from selling the asset and the price paid for it.

Capital gain tax is categorized into short-term gains and long-term gains. The Long-term Capital Gains Tax is charged if the capital assets are kept for more than certain period 1 year in case of share and 3 years in case of property. Short-term Capital Gains Tax is applicable if these assets are held for less than the above-mentioned period.

Rate at which this tax is applied varies based on investment class.

(3)   Securities Transaction Tax:-

A lot of people do not declare their profit and avoid paying capital gain tax, as government can only tax those profits, which have been declared by people. To fight with this situation Government has introduced STT (Securities Transaction Tax ) which is applicable on every transaction done at stock exchange. That means if you buy or sell equity shares, derivative instruments, equity oriented Mutual Funds this tax is applicable.

This tax is added to the price of security during the transaction itself, hence you cannot avoid (save) it. As this tax amount is very low people do not notice it much.

(4)   Perquisite Tax:-

Earlier to Perquisite Tax we had tax called FBT (Fringe Benefit Tax) which was abolished in 2009, this tax is on benefit given by employer to employee. E.g If your company provides you non-monetary benefits like car with driver, club membership, ESOP etc. All this benefit is taxable under perquisite Tax.

In case of ESOP The employee will have to pay tax on the difference between the Fair Market Value (FMV) of the shares on the date of exercise and the price paid by him/her.

(5)   Corporate Tax:-

Corporate Taxes are annual taxes payable on the income of a corporate operating in India. For the purpose of taxation companies in India are broadly classified into domestic companies and foreign companies.