All That You Must Know About Amnesty Scheme

Service tax amnesty scheme is a potent option for all evaders to get their books straightened with the tax authorities. Being a limited period offer, it is best for concerned evaders to make quick moves towards taking shelter under this scheme.

Why is Tax known as a Necessary Evil? Why don’t people willfully contribute a part of their earnings to the government treasury, but wait till threatened by dire consequences? This is perhaps one of those subjects that unify the people of India like they have never been unified before. For all the differences that the populace may be nurturing against each other, when it comes to paying taxes, everybody is up and integrated, chalking out some believable and functional plan to deny compliance of some sort or the other. There are a few common ways of putting these illegal plans to effect, some of which have managed to successfully keep the concerned entity from the glare of the authorities.

                                 

Lame as it may sound; qualified tax payers especially from the more unorganized sections of functioning get a pass by staying out of sight. Simply speaking, they simply don’t register and manage to get away with it for quite a while. Then there are those who avoid payment claiming ignorance about the process and the intricacies involved with it. Some had even gone to the extent of claiming that they had no idea about the fact that they qualified as assessees. The more seasoned geniuses who understand the implications of being caught have designed methods to pay far lesser than what they should otherwise have paid.

While the authorities have set records in exposing thousands and thousands of such evaders, the matter of rampant non-compliance has created a massive crater in the already suffering exchequer of the government. Filling it up fast and easy is the call of the day and catching random dodgers can be both time consuming and expensive. The Amnesty Scheme or, the Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme (VCES) has thus been introduced as one of those genius strokes that can bring in even the most seasoned specimens out of his / her secret hideout. As the name itself suggests, it is one of those plans that works by removing all threats of penalties that are usually awarded for evasion at its different levels.

Simply speaking, when the fright of might ceased to produce results, the government thought it better to play the Good Guy and coax the defaulters in parting with what is not legally theirs. For those who may be busy judging the two faced behavior of the Government, it will come as a soothing fact that this plan has actually worked wonders within a very short span of time. Some of the advantageous inclusions of the scheme can be mentioned as …

ü  Waiver of fines and interests on the due amount

ü  No threat of imprisonment, no matter how bad the case of evasion is

ü  No threat of scrapping license irrespective of shameful bulk of the amassed dues

ü  Non disclosure of names to protect identity and social standing

ü  Removal of the case from records so as to grant the concerned defaulters a fresh start

So, the Amnesty Scheme focuses on recovering nothing more than the due amount from the defaulting assessees in easy installments, allowing the evaders free to go unharmed reputation and with a straightened record with the authorities.

While all this sounds too good to be true, there are a few points that can drive a spanner in the attempts of many evaders of taking shelter under the scheme. Basically, this plan is not for all to benefit from. To qualify for the scheme, an assessee will have to be one of those who have not paid their dues for some reason or the other for one or a few financial years put together. The list of non-qualifiers runs longer though. This sad and unfortunate group includes …

1.Assessees who have not paid taxes but filed for returns

2. Assessees on whom audit has been called or the process of audit is already in progress

3.Assessees who may have made short payment of duties

There is yet another factor that all enthusiasts of the VCES must take note of, and this revolves around the matter of the plan being a sort term introduction. The clock is ticking. The end of the year 2013 will mark the end of the time frame opened for making disclosures under this protective umbrella.