Budget 2024 Live: What’s the wishlist for personal and corporate tax?

Taxpayers and corporate entities are eagerly anticipating the unveiling of the 2024 Union Budget, a pivotal event that sets the tone for economic policies and taxation frameworks for the coming year. The wish-list aimed at fostering a more equitable and efficient tax regime in India is summarized below by Raghunathan Parthasarathy, Partner, Corporate Tax, Tax & Regulatory Services, BDO India:

Personal taxation:

The expectations of public at large are: (a) raising the section 80C limit from Rs 1.5 lakhs to Rs 3 lakhs, (b) increasing the section 80D limit to Rs 50,000 (excluding deductions for parents) due to rising health insurance costs, and (c) doubling the standard deduction on salary income from Rs 50,000 to better reflect the cost of living.
Individuals and HUFs having a business income shall have the option to select between the new and old tax regimes annually.

House Rent Allowance to be extended to the new tax regime. Additionally, deduction for interest payable during the construction period may be allowed in the year of payment itself. The Cap of HRA exemption to be increased by reducing the reduction to 5% of basic salary from the current 10%.

House property [Section 23(1)(c)] – Clarification on whether benefit of vacancy allowance be availed in case of a house property which was let during one of the previous years in the past but remained vacant for the whole of the relevant previous year, although it was in a lettable position.

Corporate tax

Allow deduction of CSR expenditure completely under the head ‘PGBP’.
Extension of sunset clause for Section 115BAB – New Manufacturing companies set-up till 31 March 2026 to be made eligible for reduced tax rate of 15%.

Recommendations related to Assessment:

Time for filing revised return to be extended to the end of the assessment year. Currently, the time limit for the revised return is within 2 to 3 months of filing original return.

Filing updated return should be permitted where Assessee has missed out to make a claim for an eligible deduction in the return of income and even in case of a refund.
Section 154 – Rectification of Mistakes: Any Rectification petitions has to be disposed of within a prescribed period viz., 6 months. All rectification applications must be submitted and tracked online displaying any delays.

Appeals before the CIT(A) should be subject to a time limit of 2 years for disposal of the case.

Stay of demand: Pre-deposit of taxes at first level appellate level can be reduced to 10% from the current percentage of 20%.