VIA Lady Entrepreneurs’ Wing (VIA LEW) conducted a Webinar on “Chhoti Chhoti Baatein on Taxationâ€, on 10th February 2021 with the guest speaker CA Naresh Jakhotia, a well known Chartered Accountant and renowned tax expert of Nagpur, under the able chairmanship of Manisha Bawankar, VIA LEW.
Manisha Bawankar, Chairperson, VIA LEW gave the opening remarks and welcomed the guests on the e-session. The Chairperson, in her address mentioned that Finance is one of the most important aspects of business for every women entrepreneur. She then informed “Choose to challenge†is the campaign theme for International Women’s Day’ 2021, which will be celebrated by VIA LEW on 5th March 2021 at 3 pm at VIA auditorium.
CA Naresh Jakhotia, Treasurer of VIA, and a well known Chartered Accountant and renowned tax expert of Nagpur, is a partner in SSRPN & Co., with more than 20 years of experience in the field of direct taxes, has represented before CIT Appeals and ITAT. He is regular columnist and author of various column and articles in news papers and professional magazines, and is regular speaker in various seminars and conferences on tax planning, and is a regular faculty at NADT. He has also addressed in seminars conducted by the ICAI and Industries and Trade Associations. He was also the member of direct tax committee of WIRC of ICAI. A regular columnist and author of The Tax Talk in central India’s leading news paper. He is also the co-promoter of tax portal www.thetaxtalk.com and the author of the book ‘The Tax Talk’.
Naresh Jakhotia, at the outset said taxation is of high relevance and is interesting subject but people are least interested. Many businessmen think taxation is a matter dealt with by the accountants and tax consultants and are not very keen to participate, although they have to bear the costs and consequences of things gone wrong which can go upto 78% tax rate. There are 90% chances of maximizing the tax benefits if the businessmen take keen interest in taxation matter as taxation is one of the biggest costs involved in business activity. Classification of income in the books and its nomenclature is very important in income tax, as one has to make a choice to have the tax benefit, he added. He gave an example on how tax planning is important when even income of Rs.10/- over Rs.5 lakhs would increase your tax by Rs.12,802/-. This looks illogical, but there is no relation between logic and tax laws, he said.
On Income Tax planning, he emphasized on advance planning and filing the return well before the due date by observing the basic fundamentals of preparing the balance sheet and return at the earliest, so as to get enough time to plan. He said pre mortem of your finance planning is more important than postmortem and one should not wait for 31st March but start the procedure of planning before it.
He shared the golden rule of tax planning of dividing the income by planning without diverting, and planning to minimize tax by distributing the income between the family members. He also said gift to the family member is also a tax planning tool. He further said one can even plan the timing of the income so as to get the maximum benefit of tax e.g. in case of capital gains. Similarly, planning can be had by choosing the form of business organization/entity vis-Ã -vis the tax rates applicable to them. He also shared the tax precautions one should take.
On GST he summarized the entire gamut of the subject into a comprehensive and precise manner starting from registration till filing of returns which gave complete insight of GST to the lady entrepreneurs. He deliberated on the limit of turnover required for taking registration for traders and manufacturers if the turnover reaches Rs.40 lakhs and Rs.20 lakhs for service providers. Certain goods items and services are exempt from GST ambit like food grains, pathology labs and nursing homes where no registration is required to be obtained. Similarly, no registration is required in case b2c, business to direct consumer as the consumer is not required to take input credit. In case of b2b transactions registration is required to be taken so as to avail the input credits. For e-commerce it is mandatory to take GST No even if the sale is of Rs. 1/-
He said there are two schemes to choose from regular scheme and composition scheme, wherein under the former monthly or quarterly returns are to be filed along with submitting the details of buyers on sale and payment is made on monthly basis, whereas under composition scheme, which is for small tax payers, whose turnover is less than 1.50 crores, only annual return is to be filed with no details of the buyer and the GST rate is @ 1% for general trader and manufacturer and 5% for restaurants. For saloon n spa service sector the limit for composition scheme is at Rs. 50 lakhs, however, he said that under composition scheme sale outside Maharashtra state is not permitted. Option of choosing a scheme once availed can-not be changed till the completion of that year and only in the month of March option of change in scheme can be exercised.
He said there are three parts in collection of GST, i.e., SGST, CGST and IGST category with rates @ 0, 5, 12, 18, 28. IGST is applicable for out of Maharashtra sale.
He laid importance on preparing personal balance sheet by every individual to know the full details of self financial transactions. He said the more you are updated about the Act, the more tax you save and tax saving can be done if you know the Act well. His deliberation was in a very simplified way and lucid manner that a lay may would easily understand it.
At the end of the session Naresh Jakhotia answered questions put to him, what is the advantage of having GST no?, what papers are to be gathered before filing tax returns?, GST return filing monthly or quarterly? Which is advisable? Which tax slab is beneficial new or old? How to take benefit of having HUF?
Neelam Bowade, and Ms. Poonam Gupta, conducted the program in a grand manner. Prominently present were VIA EC members, VIA LEW EC members viz. Sarla Kamdar, Madhubala Singh, Sarita Pawar, Past Presidents Chitra Parate, Y. Ramani, Vandana Sharma, Shachi Mallick, Immd Past President Reeta Lanjewar, Vice Presidents Indu Kshirsagar, PRO Yogita Deshmukh, included in large number of participants and a large number on facebook. Poonam Lala, Secretary, VIA LEW proposed vote of thanks. All the entrepreneurs and participants took benefit of this program. A large number of lady entrepreneurs were immensely benefited by this session.