Lesson #1

Hey All,

It has been long since updated the blog and it feels great to do so. But today I want to go to the simple accounting that can help some of the students out there who are new to accounting and need some getting used to.

As you know till now I have just given the Accounting Cycle and nothing about what works where, when and how. Today I'd start with the most basic thing that a new student to accounting should remember or take a look at it.

The first thing you should do as a new accounting student is know from where to start accounting. Accounting is just like crime solving in certain aspects. For any step towards accounting to be taken first you should have proof or evidence to what you are going to say or do. If you don't have that proof or evidence then everythingelse is puff of air. And if you do record it some how then you my friend will be in big big trouble and in for a joy ride. ;-)

So to record anything in accounting manner first get evidence that what ever you are recording exists. Now how could you get that evidence? And how would you believe if that evidence is real or made up? The evidence procedure would vary from transaction to transaction. It is the amount or materiality of the transaction that will define how greater effectivity will be needed for recording of the transaction. In many ways you can record the transactions only by having following evidence and they are deemed good enough as well as easier to keep and maintain. Such as
(i) Simple paper or chit with details of transaction amount of it signed by the authorised person.
(ii) Bill of the transaction
(iii) Voucher of the transaction etc.

And as transactions become important with bids or tenders from many people the accounting becomes just as fancy yet remains simple.

So today's Lesson#1: Before recording any transaction get evidence.

That's it for the day.

Agriculture India- A small story

Indian agriculture is a mystery. Its a puzzle. Some say its dependent on a good monsoon. Some say its not just monsoon. Some say money invested in agriculture is a waste of money and for people like me its the focal point of becoming truly self sufficient. So investment is necessary in Agriculture.

Recently Dr. Manmohansingh, PM of India has been talking up the talk of need for second Green Revolution. Considering India's turmoil condition, only green revolution is an understatement. Mr. Norman Borlaug who is father of Green revolution in many nations is also father of green revolution in India.  He came to India in the March of 1962 and slowly his research started to bear fruit. When he came to India the yield of wheat was 793 k.g. per hectare. And by 1967-68 it grew to 1103 kg per hectare. Even there was growth in the production of Rice. Its yield went from 931 k.g. per hectare to 1032 k.g. per hectare.And in came first Green revolution. I don't know what might have been reaction of people or politicians since its nearly 19 years before I was born, but I am very much sure they all must be jumping ahead of one another to take credit of that great men's work.

I'd just skip the in between years and fast forward to the current years. In current years our prime minister is talking about proceeding to second green revolution era. An era where we' d become self sufficient in the production to utilization of basic food necessities. That year came and went for a short span of years 2006-07 and 2007-08. We have been importing certain amount of food grains but the numbers are encouraging. The numbers in terms of production show that the total production of Wheat in the year 2010-11 was staggering 95.33 million tonnes with impressive yield of 2240 k.g. per hectare. Such statistics are encouraging since we are very close to many developed countries like U.S.A and even Canada. Same way rice has seen some growth as well. Its total production now stands at 85.93 million tonnes with impressive yield of 2938 kg per hectare.

All these are signs that we may be moving to next green revolution. And in due time we may become self sufficient. It is just not important to produce such numbers of Agriculture produce but it is also of utmost importance to store them and effectively distribute them. In these both activities India seems to lag behind.

CWC, Central Warehousing Corporation of India, a premiere warehousing corporation of India has only 468 warehouses with a mere capacity of 10.09 million tonne capacity. FCI, Food Corporation of India, the organisation that is looking after procuring, storing, moving, distributing, financing has mere capacity of only 33.60 million tonnes. Considering the amount of production India has i.e. over 300million tonnes annually, this capacity with respect to that is just nothing.

One of the other ways of not letting this produce go to waste and being able to use it is PDS. PDS is Public Distribution System, via which government wants to achieve twin objectives of making sure that farmers get MSP and such procured produce is distributed among  the people needing it.. But expenses for such extensive program can be over 27 crore rupees a day. So it seems less feasible.

For all the poor waiting out there for food I hope a Robin Hood takes birth. May be one won't do. Here's hoping for plenty of Robin hoods.

Impact of Direct Tax Code on Special Economic Zones

Hey,

Today, I decided to take a break from normal accounting and decided to put forward a research on taxation. As many of us are aware that in a short period of time Direct Tax Code will be implemented instead of Income Tax Act,1956, I decided to put forward a research how such new Code will affect the Special Economic Zones.

Now, we all know Special Economic Zones are treated most times for the places situated out side India for Tax purposes. Be it Income Tax or Customs.

Income Tax Act:

Income Tax incentives for SEZ units

Tax exemption for SEZ units engaged in manufacture or providing services- A new section 10AA has been introduced in the IT Act by SEZ Act, 2005 which provides that the units in SEZ which start manufacturing or producing articles/ things or which start providing services on or after April 1, 2005 will be eligible for a deduction of 100 percent of export profits for the first five years from the year in which such manufacture/ provision of services commences and 50 percent of the export profits for the next five years. Further, for the next five years a deduction shall be allowed of upto 50 percent of the profit as is debited to the profit and loss account and credited to the Special Economic Zone Reinvestment Reserve Account (subject to conditions).

       Tax exemption for Offshore Banking units in SEZ- A deduction in respect of certain incomes would be allowed under the new section 80LA, to scheduled banks or foreign banks having an Offshore Banking unit in SEZ or to a unit of IFSC. The deduction shall be for 100 percent of income for five consecutive years beginning from the year in which permission/ registration has been obtained under the Banking Regulation Act or the SEBI Act or any other relevant law and 50 percent of income for next five years.

       Interest received by non-residents and not ordinary residents on deposits made with an Offshore Banking Unit on or after April 1, 2005 shall be exempt from tax.

       Exemption from Minimum Alternate Tax ("MAT")- Income arising or accruing on or after April 1, 2005 from any business carried on, or services rendered by SEZ unit would be exempt from MAT under section 115JB.

       Exemption from Capital Gains- Capital gains arising on transfer of assets (machinery, plant, building, land or any rights in buildings or land) on shifting of the industrial undertaking from an urban area to any SEZ would be exempt from capital gains tax. The exemption would be allowable if within one year before or three years after such transfer:

       Machinery or plant is purchased for the purposes of business of industrial undertaking in SEZ by the assessee.

       Assessee has acquired land or building or has constructed building for the purposes of business in SEZ.

       The original assets are shifted and establishment of the industrial undertaking is transferred to SEZ; and other specified expenses are incurred.

       The amount of exemption for capital gains would be restricted to the costs and expenses incurred in relation to all or any of the purposes mentioned above.

 Income Tax incentives for SEZ Developer

Tax holiday for SEZ developers- Section 80-IAB of  IT Act gives a deduction of 100 percent of profits derived from the business of developing SEZ (notified on or after April 1, 2005) would be available to developer of SEZ for any 10 consecutive years out of 15 years beginning from the year in which SEZ has been notified.

       Exemption under section 10(23G) that was available to infrastructure capital fund or a cooperative bank on interest and long term capital gains investment had been extended to investment made by SEZ developers qualifying for tax holiday under section 80-IAB. However, this exemption has been withdrawn with effect from assessment year 2007-08.

       Exemption from Dividend Distribution Tax ("DDT")- No DDT would be payable by a developer of SEZ on dividend declared, distributed or paid on or after April 1, 2005 out of current income.

       Exemption from MAT- Any income earned on or after April 1, 2005 by a SEZ developer would be exempt from MAT under section 115JB of the Act.

        

Now What DTC proposes?

DTC has proposed to bring a  shift in granting tax incentives to SEZ developers.DTC proposed to substitute the word Profit Based incentive prevalent under the existing provisions of the act with Expenditure/Investment based deductions for SEZs notified on or after April 1,2012.It has also provided for grandfathering of existing profit based deduction to SEZs notified on or after March 31,2012 for unexpired deduction period, However irrespective of the date of notification of their SEZs.SEZ developers will no longer enjoy the exemption from MAT liability and DDT under DTC.

SEZs notified on or before March 31, 2012:

1.    Profit based deductions under Sec.80 IAB of Income Tax Act would be grandfathered under DTC for the balance unexpired period out of prescribed 10 years.

2.    For computation of eligible profit, the methodology prescribed under schedule 12 of DTC Act is applicable.

3.    Capital expenditure as well as expenditure incurred prior to the commencement of business shall not be allowed.

4.    MAT and DDT exemptions shall not be allowed.

5.    Conditions under Sec.80 IAB for availing tax deductions shall continue to be applicable.

6.    SEZs notified on or after April1, 2012, SEZ developers shall be eligible for claiming Expenditure/Investment based deduction.

7.    Profits shall be gross earning less business expenditure in accordance with Schedule 12 of DTC.

8.    Capital Expenditure and expenditure incurred prior to commencement of business shall be allowable as business expenditure, except expenditure incurred on purchase/Acquisition of any land, or long term lease, goodwill, or financial instrument.

The total SEZ exports in the first quarter of this fiscal year (2010-11) has been at Rs. 58,685.46 crore which shows a growth of 68 percent over the corresponding year. The export in SEZ in the year 2009-10 has been at Rs. 2,20,711.39 crore which shows a growth of 121.40 percent.
As on June 30, an investment of Rs. 1,66,526 crore has been made in SEZs and direct employment for 5,50,323 persons have been generated.

• Tax incentives

Under the DTC, the developers of new projects post the DTC would be entitled to a tax incentive, albeit on an investment linked basis. For the existing projects, the DTC provides for grandfathering of profit-based deduction for the unexpired period

On the other hand, for new SEZ units, there are no incentives available for units set up after the DTC comes into effect.

• Financial impact

The introduction of investment linked incentive as a substitute for profit linked incentive is a striking shift in the government's thinking of granting incentives. The rationale quoted by the Ministry of Finance for such a move is that profit linked deductions are distortionary in nature as they create an incentive to inflate profit as well as to transfer profits from a taxable entity to a non-taxable one. Under the investment linked tax incentive, the benefit would be available to developers in the form of upfront deduction of capital expenditure (at par with the treatment of revenue expenditure), subject to certain exceptions. The financial impact of shift to investment based incentive vary from one developer to another depending upon the investment and income model of the developers.

However, even with this shift in incentive methodology, there continues to be a lack of clarity in taxation of SEZ units and developers. The government is providing with the Income-Tax exemption to those SEZ units which will be operational by March 31, 2014  as provided in the present SEZ Act. And, the units which will become operational after March 2014 they are being provided with the investment-linked exemptions, it is difficult because the time period which has been provided to the SEZ units is insufficient. The units which will be operational by 2014 (which means the SEZ units which will become operational after 2012) they are getting two years time. However, a SEZ developer gets three years time for developing the SEZ units as per the SEZ Act and it can also be extended further.

Therefore, developers which have become or will become eligible to claim deduction between this period could face some difficulty in claiming benefits as per the present draft of the DTC.

• Again, as far as units are concerned, the revised discussion paper on DTC simply states that units already operating in SEZs will be protected for the unexpired period. However, there is no guidance on the meaning of the term 'operating' thereby leaving some room for doubt.
  
  Clearly, the revised incentive methodology as well as the open tax issues are beginning to have a bearing on the decision of corporates seeking to invest in SEZ. One must not lose sight of the fact that the government had heavily promoted SEZs to Indian economy with its most prominent 'tax free' character. However, with a lack of basic clarity on some income tax issues is now causing a rethink from several corporates.
  
  Those developers who had proceeded to make huge investments or commitments on the basis of income tax benefits. They now find that while they may continue to get an exemption even under the DTC, albeit under a changed methodology, no corresponding benefits would be available to new units. Since new units may not be adequately incentivised after the DTC comes into force, the developers may potentially be left with developed land and costly infrastructure with little or no takers. This could significantly impact the profitability of several developers who are yet to complete their projects.

• If tax benefits are withdrawn, no new unit will come up in SEZs, adding that developers will lose huge investments made in land and infrastructure if companies do not set up units.

• From being tax free, to suddenly now be taxed at around 20 to 21% would surely hurt the smaller SEZs.

Conclusion:

It has been clear from above discussions that

The New Direct Tax Code, the survey shows overwhelming support for the code, with over three-fourth of respondents saying the code is simple and easy to understand, it will avoid litigation. The proposed reduction of tax rates, the end of incentives are other positives, although 72% respondents fear the new rules could lead to witch hunting, while MNC respondents are unhappy with the treaty override provision. Most of the aspects are positive. But you still have 20-25% of people who believe that there are negatives with respect to tax holidays, simplicity.In Short:

1. Efficiency with which fund is utilized will improve.
2. The tax collection will go up.
3. By not allowing credit of tax paid by way of minimum alternate tax, this tax is in the nature of     wealth tax and not on income at all;
4. This type of tax will clearly be an additional burden to loss making companies and will make their survival more difficult.

BIBLIOGRAPHY / WEBSITES:

1.     http://taxguru.in/direct-tax-code/sez-developers-step-up-demand-for-continued-income-tax-exemptions-seek-centre-states-intervention.html

2.     http://www.forum4finance.com/2010/07/08/sez-developers%E2%80%99-demands-continuation-of-tax-sops-under-revised-dtc/

3.      http://www.indianrealtynews.com/real-estate-india/sez-developers-concerned-over-adverse- impact-of-dtc.html

4.     http://www.premiuminvestments.in/cover-feature/53293p106/53255.html

5.     http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_now-one-more-sez-wants-to-withdraw-from-gujarat_1565979

6.     http://www.suite101.com/content/impact-of-dtc-reforms-on-sezs-in-india-a356099

7.     http://www.inhouselawyer.co.uk/index.php/india/8302-impact-of-direct-tax-code-on-special-economic-zones

8.     http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/dtc-bill-to-impact-employment-investment-in-sezs-epces/107180/on

9.     http://catuts.com/minimum-alternate-tax-mat/

10.  governancenow.com/.../india-inc-wary-dtc-want-sez-sops-continue

11.  http://www.eximguru.com/exim/special_economic_zone_sez/ch_9_sez_incentives.aspx

12.  www.scribd.com/doc/38936751/Impact-of-DTC-on-SEZ

13.  http://www.projectsmonitor.com/SEZ/sezs-face-tax-hurdles-in-the-direct-taxes-code

14.  http://www.suite101.com/content/impact-of-direct-tax-code-dtc-reforms-in-india-a350221

1.CAtuts Newsletter [Article] / auth. Poddar Hemant Karnani and Madhusudan. - 2011.

2. DTC bill to impact employment, investment in SEZs: EPCES [Report] / auth. India Press Trust of. - New Delhi : Business Standard, August 31, 2010.

3.Impact of direct tax code on special economic zones [Report] / auth. Mangaldas Amarchand. - [s.l.] : The In -House Lawyer, 11 February 2011.

4. Effect of DTC on SEZ Policy : A Major setback for the Industry growth [Journal] / auth. Research RNB. - [s.l.] : TODAY’S CHANAKYA POLL:, 19 July 2010.

5. IMPACT OF UNION BUDGET 2011-12 [Journal]. - [s.l.] : Asia Pacific Tax Notes, 2011.

Revised Discussion Paper on the Direct Taxes Code [Journal].

6.Incentives to SEZ under the Direct Tax Code [Journal] / auth. Rao Sharath and N Krishna. - [s.l.] : BMR Advisors, August 11, 2010. - Issue 8.6 : Vol. Vol.4.

7.Revised discussion paper on Direct Tax Code, released by Ministry of Finance / auth. SEZs EXPORT PROMOTION COUNCIL FOR EOUs & // EPCES CIRCULAR NO. 112 DATED 16-6-2010. - New Delhi : [s.n.],

8.K.R.Girish. (2009). Direct Tax Code-Key Issues. BSR & Co. , 1-11.

9.Advisors, B. (June 16, 2010). Direct Taxes Code V2.0 – Analysis by BMR Advisors. BMR Advisors , Vol.4 (Issue.6.3), 1-9.

10.Dhomse, J. D. (2011, July 15). Now, one more SEZ wants to withdraw from Gujarat. Daily News And Analysis .

11.Ruma Dubey. (2011, March 18). SEZs – GETTING OFF THE ‘MAT’.

12.Tax Guru. (2010, July 9). SEZ developers step up demand for continued Income-Tax exemptions, Seek Centre, States intervention. Tax Guru .

13. Sonthalia, E. C., & Singhal, E. D. (2010, August 31). EPCES: DTC to impact investment in SEZs. (forum4finance, Interviewer)

14. Services, E. F. (2010, August 31st). DTC Bill will affect employment, investment in SEZs’. (EPCES, Interviewer)

15. Indian Realty News. (July 13, 2010). SEZ Developers Concerned Over Adverse Impact of DTC. Indian Realty News.

Accounting Cycle

Hello,

Accounting is a tricky business. It is important to know from where its implication basically starts taking place. If the origin point is missed then the same could lead to a lot of complications later on. Now this accounting process follows a certain pattern which forms a cycle pattern and we call the same accounting cycle.

taken from http://www.google.co.in/imgres?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&sa=N&biw=1024&bih=677&tbm=isch&tbnid=gq0TCbrnXKt26M:&imgrefurl=http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/the-eight-steps-of-the-accounting-cycle.html&docid=5zib297_GR-6AM&imgurl=http://media.wiley.com/Lux/89/239189.image0.jpg&w=448&h=400&ei=RYesT-nBEonTrQeizMmEAw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=108&vpy=304&dur=1739&hovh=212&hovw=238&tx=134&ty=143&sig=109851938189174260709&page=1&tbnh=153&tbnw=171&start=0&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:0,i:83


Now what cycle does it exactly follow is important to know. Does it have any over lapping issues or can we skip certain steps of cycles is also a thing to know and understand. Now the simplest of accounting cycle looks something like this.

The point of origin of any accounting cycle is usually a monetary transaction or transfer or exchange. Whenever money changes hand or an exchange of any kind takes place that can have impact on business. Such exchange or transfer is a transaction and one such transaction is the point of origin of accounting. The other thing about this transaction is we can have many such transactions, so it is not possible to do accounting of every transaction every second. On the other hand we can not memorise each and every transaction as well. So what we do is keep it with us in a chit or note before it is entered in a voucher and then officially accounted for it. Though with the Rise of the Machine :-), record keeping procedure has become easier.

Next thing in the cycle is journal entry. Journal entry is very important pillar of accounting. And with the advent of ERP systems they have become even more important before. We'll see and talk about the rules of journal entries later on but one wrong entry could lead to faulty financial statements.

Now, when I was in school they said all the next phases of accounting cycles are more important and harder to master or even understand. So one can understand how hard it is to prepare them.But with ERP systems such tough tasks have become easier then before. The very next phase of accounting is Posting of Journal entries in its respective ledgers. Earlier it used to be very tedious and boring work that used to take up a lot of time. But now it has become simpler. The software it self posts entry in the ledgers based on the journal entries. That means if your  journal entry is wrong the system will put wrong entry in its ledger and after that consequences are just as heartbreaking as any failed love story in the world.

The next phase is called preparing Trial Balance. What is a trial balance? It is live in relationship of accounting. It checks the compatibility of accounting. If they are compatible with each other then we can go on marrying it. Trial balance is a statement that shows the closing balances of ledgers in an organised statement manner and points out if there is any difference. Such Trial balance must tally. If it doesn't then we have to find any mistake and rectify the same.

Now the next phases will be in continued manner....

Accounts: History

Hey,

Before going to what is accounts and what is important while dealing with accounts, I'd wish to take you down to history lane and know a bit of it. While knowing history you'll know that everything that stands today is in someway or other the product of accounting.

It is said that Accountancy was born in Mesopotamia about 7,000 years ago but to me this kid(yes, even after 7,000 years accounts is just a kid) is lot more earlier then any civilization that we know of. For me it is older than even when man started living in colonies and in groups. It is just as old as when first time man would have killed an animal to feed himself and after eating a while, he would have looked at it and thought this much is left over and i'll have it in the evening or tomorrow. That was how he started keeping Inventory and does it count as accounting? Primitive accounting and we still use that aspect of primitive accounting in its some what refined form. But more on that latter.Yes it does. He kept accounting of it in his mind and started a first step in the birth of it.

Accounting has been key to development of proper trade and in turn key to many born civilizations. Accountants have participated in founding of cities, development of cultures, trade, business and a lot of other things. It has saved many of the industrialists going bankrupt and vice versa. It is believed that accounting was a major factor in Italian  Renaissance. 


Accountancy has developed a lot after its primitive nature. There are different branches of accounting such as Financial accounting, Management accounting and Management accounting but just as brothers they all share the same DNA.


In this blog i'll mostly stick to financial accounting and how a person can benefit from the knowledge of the same.

And next time we'll get to Accountancy nd what it can do to you :-)

A B C D of Accounts

Hey,

Till now whenever you would have studied a,b,c, you said A for apple b for ball but for most people who studied accounts or have to study now this is what A,b,c,d will look like. It is the way to know the world of accounts basic and subtle.

Why am I doing this? Many of the business persons have always had querries while understanding accounts and accountants have shown the whole world to them. You know what I mean. For them what alphabets of accounts are like,

And meaning of the Individuals and for the Individuals will follow.

A: Accounts(Aww, too painful)
B: Book keeping(For how many years?)
C: Credit(Really???)
D: Debit(Give me my money)
E: Expenses, expenditure((please give me some discount)
F: Fixed Assets(Should i sell them, should I keep them?)
G: Goodwill(the fruit of your blood and sweat, don't blow it)
H: Holding (HEll..Not for armatures even seasoned professionals struggle with them)
I: Income(your blood,sweat and...)
J: Journal entry(Joke that will not make you laugh)
K: Kash(Kash with K not C, lucky letter)
L: Loss(I am going home)
M: Money(Misery you're put through)
N:Notional(A concept beyond concept)
O: Overhead(starting few days of learning accounts)
P: Profit(Idk, who are you?)
Q: Quarter(some horrible time)
R:Rate of Interest(please sir i have more credibility in market, lower thr rate)
S: Share(I am going to piss off a lot of people)
T: Tax(fun finally!!!!!)
U: Unrecorded items(Man, that's what I am talking about)
V: VAT(who cares)
W:WDV(Market say up, accounts say down)
X:  * (I hope my income does)
Y: Year end(The torture time, save me now..)
Z: Zero(Account knowledge at the end of the first blog)

So guys get ready, its about studying but I know the emotions.

Cheers.