India’s big budget for the fiscal year 2020-2021 arrived during a time where the country is witnessing feeble economic growth and a slowdown in macro-economic activities. This scenarios is quite evident from the performance of various key sectors including real estate, infrastructure, manufacturing etc.The budget had to live up to the expectations of all groups of the society ranging from an Individual to a big corporate. The below paragraphs talk some key highlights from this budget:

FOR INDIVIDUALS
· Instant online allotment of PAN based on Aadhaar. 

· Extension of tax holiday on affordable housing by 1 year.

· Additional deduction of Rs.1.5 lacs for interest paid on affordable housing loans extended until 31 Mar 2021. 

· Donations made to charitable institutions under 80G to be verified against annual information report filed by these institutions. 

· New (Optional) Tax Regime

For individual taxpayers, new optional income tax regime came into picture. Under the new regime individual assesses with taxable income of less than Rs.15 lakhs slabs can avail of lower tax rates if they forego various exemptions and deductions. New optional tax slabs are rates are

FOR CORPORATE

Waiver of Dividend Distribution Tax

A big boost for the corporate sector came in as the government decided to waive off the Dividend Distribution Tax in the hands of corporate. The dividend will now be taxed in the hands of the investors.  

FOR COOPERATIVES

Tax on cooperative societies comes down to 22% from an earlier rate of 30%.  

INDIRECT TAXES

•  Rise in customs and excise duties on furniture, footwear and cigarettes. 
•  The tax on ESOPs will be deferred by five years encouraging more issue of ESOPs. 

GST

•  New simplified GST return to be implemented from Apr 1 2020. 
•  MSMEs now come under mandatory audit if they reach a turnover threshold of Rs.5 crore as against Rs.1 crore if they carry out less than 5% of their business in cash.
   

VIVAD SE VISHWAS SCHEME

•  The scheme is targeted to boost the collection of Direct Taxes. 
•   Government plans to waive off interest and penalty for those tax payers who pay their pending disputed taxes by March 31.