Home Visits & Online Tax Help: IT Dept.’s initiatives under Tax Return Preparers scheme

The Indian Income Tax Department has been coming up with initiatives to ensure that Tax filing can be done with minimum of efforts. The have now come out with 2 new initiatives –Online Tax Help and Register for Home Visit.

Both these initiatives have been launched under the Tax Return Preparer (TRP) scheme in which tax payers can take the help of registered professionals to file their returns. The scheme is currently available in Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Patna and Lucknow. The IT department said that more cities will be added.

To use the TRP scheme, tax payers will have to log on to www.trpscheme.com and can either click on Register for Home Visit or Online Tax Help.

From the website, tax payers can either fill out details on online forms or look for registered TRPs in their states and districts. If tax payers choose the online route, their query will be answered either via email or phone by tax experts.

If the home visit route is chosen, a TRP will schedule a home visit and assist the tax payer.

Who are TRPs?

Tax Return Preparers or TRPs are registered professionals, who with the support of the government can assist individuals / HUF to file their tax returns. For their services, TRPs can charge up to Rs. 250 for preparation of every return.

Additionally TRPs will receive an incentive from the IT Dept. which will be a percentage of the tax paid, up to a maximum of Rs. 1,000. These incentives range from 3% of tax paid by every new assessee followed by 2% and 1% in the second and third year respectively.

For old and existing assessees, TRPs will receive a flat fee of Rs. 250 from the IT Dept.

What will the TRP do?

Prima facie, it seems that TRPs will be responsible in assisting tax payers to prepare their IT returns. They will also furnish the returns with the IT Dept and subsequently maintain a record of the filing. It is important that TRPs are not be confused with accountants or auditors.

In formal capacity, their role merely seems to be that of a person who can assist and help to file and organize an IT return.

Who benefits by these initiatives?

The lay man tax payer can avail professional help to fill out tax returns without paying more than Rs. 250. The TRPs on the other hand can charge tax payers, and earn incentives from the IT Dept. On the TRP scheme’s website, success stories of TRPs claim that registered professionals are now taking advantage of this initiative and are assisting thousands of tax payers every year. With figures like these, being a TRP could very well be a mainstream income source.

Of course, there is benefit for the IT Dept as well. This initiative may go a long way into increasing collections for government coffers as TRPs will assist tax payers in filing the right amount of returns. Additionally these initiatives also have the potential of drawing in first time tax payers with the apparent notion of ‘ease of filing Tax returns’.

Google Search’s Maths Calculator is just Awesome!

Just Wow! Google search sometimes really surprises you with some awesome stuff.

Google Search’s newest feature, a maths calculator, is so awesome that you will be floored by its flexibility and utility. A user just needs to type in any calculation straight into the Google search box and bingo… it will give you all the mathematic sums.

And the Google calculator it does not stop at simple calculations, it also has scientific functions built into it – which means, scientist will not have to look for scientific calculator to do complex calculations. Google Search box will be everything they may need for doing their calculations.

Here is a simple yet a long maths sum that I gave put in Google Search

The flexibility that Google’s calculator offers to users is just awesome. You can put your mathematical query in numbers or simple English language. If you see the query which I have used above, you will see that I have user a hybrid query which includes numbers as well as words. Google Calculator comprehends everything and represents it in numerical equation and offers exact answer!

Most people NOT exempt from filing Tax Returns for income below Rs. 5 Lakh

Government has made it official that an individual who earns income below Rs. 5 Lakhs need not file their Income Tax Return. However, don’t jump with joy because most will still have to file the returns due to the conditions IT Department has attached with this rider.

In this article Taxmantra will help you in understanding the situation better and make you aware of all the condition related to it and the people to whom such exemption limit does not apply. Further, we will also brief you on the benefits of filing Income Tax Returns and why it is important to file your Income Tax Returns.

People are aware of the fact that government has granted exemption to individuals from filing their returns if they earn a salary income below Rs. 5 Lakhs. But they are unaware of the conditions relating to it and to whom it does not apply.

The following class of persons cannot avail such exemption:-

1.) An individual who has multiple Form 16 (has shifted from one employment to another)

2.) An individual who earns income other than income from salary and savings bank interest

3.) An individual whose total Tax Liability has not been paid through Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) and has some amount of Tax Payable

4.) An individual who has some amount of refund due to excess deduction of Tax Deducted at Source (TDS)

5.) An individual whose interest income on savings bank account is above Rs. 10,000.

Further, the following class of people can only avail such exemption limit:-

a.) An Individual whose source of income is Salary income and Tax has been deducted on such income through TDS and there is no amount of Tax Payable or Refund.

b.) An individual who earns interest income on savings bank account and such income isbelow Rs. 10,000.

Common people are confused over the issues relating to return filing. Their main concern is regarding the exempted limit of return filing. As we are aware of the fact that Government has exempted individuals from filing return those whose salary income is less than Rs. 5 Lakhs.

But in this article Taxmantra is advising you to always file your return even if your salary income is less than Rs. 5 Lakhs.

Benefits of filing Tax return even if the salary income is less than Rs. 5 Lakhs

1.) Form 16 does not stand as a valid proof of your income. Further, ITRV received from the Income Tax Department stands as a valid proof of income and is accepted everywhere.

2.) In case you want to apply for a Loan (Housing Loan, Car Loan, Personal Loan, etc.,), the Financial Institute such as bank will ask for 3 Years ITRV as a proof of financial stability which can be maintained only by filing your Income Tax Returns every year.

3.) In case you want to make a Visa application it is necessary to file your Income Tax Return.

4.) It is always advisable to maintain a Financial record of Income in the form of ITRV to stay Hassle Free and be able to present such record whenever needed.

Thus, considering the above points it can be summed up that one should file return even if salary is less than Rs. 5 Lakhs.

Only 20% Indian Engineers possess language skills for Business Writing & Client Interaction!

We pride ourselves for having one of the largest English speaking population in the world. We need to rethink that notion. It is probably the Hinglish that we are talking about and not English.

According to survey conducted by Aspiring Minds, majority of recently passed out Engineers in India lack the basic language competence required in Business as well as local environment.

The findings in the Aspiring Minds report  are based on the objective test-attempt data of 55,000 engineering students from 250+ engineering colleges across multiple Indian states who graduated in 2011. All of them undertook AMCAT English, a competency-based standardized assessment of English developed by Aspiring Minds.

Comparison of English comprehension skills

According to the report, 25 to 35% engineers cannot even comprehend English used in day-to-day conversations. Given that Engineering curriculum and lectures offered are all in English, the level of knowledge transfer during classes is surely a huge concern for colleges and universities.

Nearly half of the Indian engineers (50% to 60%) are unable to construct grammatically correct sentences even for writing emails. In the context of employment, especially in the knowledge based Industry like Information Technology (where maximum number of engineers are recruited), written communication plays a very important role.

The report also finds that only one in four engineering graduates (27%) have superior grammar, comprehension and vocabulary command over English language. This is generally the level that is required for research and analysis profiles in the Knowledge Process Outsourcing industry. This level of competence is also required incase he/she is considering higher studies or studying abroad.

One of the reasons why we see this low level of competency in English language among Indian engineering graduates is because more than 90% of students complete their their school & high school studies in their local language. English comes in as 2nd language. When they enter Engineering, everything is taught in English without the use of local language. Given that their basics are weak, they graduate without much proficiency in English.

The report opines that to achieve good level of proficiency in English language four years of Engineering alone is not enough and the onus lies with schools to clear the basics and inculcate in students a love for reading and writing in the English language.

MBA – Do you need it?

Every year 150,000 plus students in India attempt the various MBA entrance examinations. The more popular ones are CAT, GMAT, MAT and XAT. There is an entire industry that has sprung up to help these students attempt these examinations

But my fundamental question is do you need an MBA?

Before we try to answer those questions, let me tell you candidly that I have an MBA. And I entered an MBA institute with 5 years of work experience in the healthcare services industry. This means I was more or less aware of my strengths and weak nesses, and came with a clear mandate on which areas I wanted to focus on.

90 % of our MBA aspirants in the country come with no or less than 1 year of experience. For most it is an extension of their graduation, where they waltz through the 2 years and focus on the placements and the rupee figures at the end of the term.

Little importance is given to core areas like Industry networking, Industry short term projects and even the academic projects are looked upon as chore rather that something to learn from.

As most Indian B schools promise a summer internship and final placement, students don’t even bother leaving the campus to build their own bridges in the Industry.

In my opinion, most Indian graduates need to put in a few years in the industry before opting for an MBA. This will help them make wise decisions, rather than going through the process and landing up in jobs that they are not passionate about.

The other challenge is the fundamental nature of the B school curriculum in India. Every year the students learn close to 21 subjects and I am not sure if the human brain is built to retain such vast quantities of diverse curriculum in equal proportions.

This brings to my second point, knowing what and where to concentrate is a good thing to have in a B school, but until and unless you have worked and identified your strength in the battle field, it will be difficult to pick and choose your battles.

In conclusion, do you need an MBA?

I don’t think so, unless and until you are sure of what you want to concentrate on, I think, it is more of a social exercise without any industrial value in it. Like others it is just a tick in the box and more a requirement for our marriage market.

But I would like to hear your views. Do you think an MBA without experience has helped you? If yes then how? If not then why not? Do let me know what you think.

How Companies’ fool & misguide you through marketing E-Mailers [Case Study]

I am sure most of you who are reading this article may have come across an unsolicited email that has arrived in your inbox with some unbelievable offers or wins or worst some downloads  etc. Majority of the users are now aware of it (and delete it), but, there are some new unaware internet users who fall for it.

Fortunately, most e-mail platforms do a good job now-a-days to divert such mails to spam avoiding users falling into their traps.

However, there are breed of companies’ and marketers who also use not-so-clean tactics to misguide email users. I just came across one such email today and wanted to show our readers how they easily fool email users.

Today, in my Gmail inbox, I got a mail from “Airtel Live” with subject line “Keep track of missed calls with airtel missed call alerts.”.

Though, I am not a Airtel user, I was quite curious about the mail. Once I opened the email and scrutinized it – It was clear that it was a marketing email not coming from Airtel, but fromyoumint.com, a rewards point company. The email was sent so that I should sign-up for their program.

See the Email Screenshot given below:

You can also see the online version of not-so-genuine ad here. [Update: This link was previously taking me to Youmint website for sign-up… Looks like after this post, the link has been diverted to Airtel Website]

Now, there is a chance that Youmint.com might have partnered with Airtel – even then, this mail misguides the user completely into thinking that this mail has directly come from Airtel. There is absolutely no mention on Youmint.com anywhere in the email.

Now, this is just an example, but marketers use such tactics widely and users have to be careful about clicking on any such emails. These kind of emails don’t only fool the users but also the Email Spam filters.

Even Brands (like Airtel in this case) have to be careful about their name / logo being used for such purposes.

Google launches Web Academy in India with NIIT

In partnership with NIIT, Google has launched Google Web Academy in India. The learning program has been created to train young Indian professionals in online programmes using Google technologies. The main aim of this program is to help professionals and organizations reach out to a larger audience. Courses will be delivered through NIIT’s centres across India.

Initially students will register for a Certificate Programme for Online Professionals using Google Technologies, which will have a 60 hour course duration. From the program details on NIIT’s Google Web Academy website, it seems that the curriculum will include different modules revolving around knowledge about Google Apps and using them to create, build and promote an online presence, including:

• Picking up on the basics of using Gmail and related apps to store and organize communication and data
• Creating an online identity with Google+ and Google website
• Developing an online strategy by using Google Tools to look for potential customers and target advertisements
• Sustaining and expanding online presence via social media, YouTube and Blog
• Generating revenue with Google Adsense
• Tracking and analysing online presence with Google Analytics

The release on NIIT website mentions that Google Web Academy will later evolve into a comprehensive training program offering courses in mobile apps, cloud computing and integration of more Google products and 3^rd party apps for individuals and businesses. NIIT CEO Vijay Thadani said "….This pioneering initiative will introduce the latest technology to students and working professionals to help them carve a challenging career path in emerging internet economies."

‘Emerging internet economies’ seemed to be the keyword both the companies wanted to hit here. Complimentary to what Thadani had to say, Rajan Anandan, VP & MD Google India mentioned "As the Indian internet market continues to show robust growth, we believe a capacity building program to help young professionals gear up for the opportunity is the need of the hour. Google Web Academy is part of our initiative for emerging Internet economies and we’re very excited to launch this in India first…."

This is not the first time NIIT will be partnering with a tech giant to offer training courses in India. In the past, the BSE and NSE listed company has partnered with the likes of Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and Oracle.

Google on the other hand too, has an ocean of online courses and tutorials dabbling in various aspects of online presence and programming. But this will be the first time that it reaches out directly to the online Indian population in India.

The core structure of the program is based on Google services and apps. If the academy becomes a hit with India Inc, without a doubt, there will be a spike in users of the online giant’s services.

So would it be fair to say that while Google teaches Indian professionals how to reach out to more customers online, it is doing so for itself?

Regardless of the answer, Google Web Academy seems to be set to empower Indian professionals and organizations with skills to squeeze out the potential of an online presence.