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New Delhi: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Thursday said it has notified changes in tax laws to allow a salaried taxpayer to claim TCS (tax collected at source) credit on expenses like foreign travel and study incurred by children.
Earlier only the individuals who used to make payments were allowed to claim TCS benefits. The changes in tax regulation would assist taxpayers in reducing their income tax liability by allowing them to claim the TCS credit, especially on expenses incurred by minors.
“CBDT has notified amendments in income-tax rules for ease in claiming credit for TCS collected/TDS deducted for salaried employees and enabling claiming TCS credit of minors in the hands of parents,” the Finance Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
TCS is collected by a seller from a buyer on the sale of certain goods and is deposited with the tax authorities. The taxpayers can claim refunds at the time of the income tax return filing. It allows the government to track high-value transactions and also get revenue at the earliest point in time.
This tax is levied under sub-section (2B) of Section 192 of the Income-tax Act, 1961. The provisions of this law has been amended vide a notification dated October 15 issued by the CBDT.
“Where under any provisions of the Act, the income of the collectee is assessable in the hands of any person other than the collectee, the credit for the tax collected at source, shall be given to such other person and not to the collectee,” the CBDT noted in the notification.
The Union Budget 2024-25 introduced the provisions of TCS credit for TDS (tax deducted at source) deducted from wages. The budget outlines a 20 per cent TCS deduction upfront, but salaried employees can offset this against the TDS deduction, which will be deducted from their salary.
Through another CBDT notification issue dated October 16, the Income Tax rules has been amended to allow credit of tax collected at source to a person other than the collectee, in whose hands the income of the collectee is assessable.
Meanwhile, as per the latest ‘time series data’ released by the CBDT, direct tax collections surged to Rs 19.60 lakh crore in 2023-24, a jump of 182 per cent in 10-year period. Corporate tax collections more than doubled to over Rs 9.11 lakh crore while personal income tax mop up grew close to four-fold to Rs 10.45 lakh crore during this period.