Finance Ministry taps ICAI for inputs on New Income Tax Bill

The finance ministry has asked the chartered accountants' body to study the new income tax bill and suggest changes to improve it, two people aware of the development said.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has formed a five-member group to closely examine various provisions of the tax bill, one of them told ET.

"The Central Board of Direct Taxes wants the ICAI to give in-depth inputs on the bill. So, the institute's group will go through chapter by chapter, section by section of the bill before submitting its recommendations," another person said.


"The exercise will be done, keeping in mind the sensitivities of industry as well as individual taxpayers because the government wants to ensure both ease of doing business and ease of living," he added.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday introduced the bill, which aims to usher in a simplified and investor-friendly income-tax regime, in the Lok Sabha.

The bill was referred to a parliamentary select committee for detailed scrutiny and recommendations.

Demand for Special regime

The ICAI had in December 2024 rooted for a special and concessional tax regime for partnership firms.

At present, partnership firms-including limited liability partnerships-are subject to a 30% income tax. A 12% surcharge is also levied if the taxable income exceeds ₹1 crore.

The institute had made a raft of other recommendations to the finance ministry as well, including a simplified registration and taxation regime for charitable trusts, mandatory time limit for disposal of appeals, and further simplification of income-tax return forms.

It had also called for the alignment of rates of tax deducted at source and tax collected at source, periodic review of disposal of cases by the assessing officer and an effective grievance redressal mechanism.