Income Tax: Every Taxpayer in India has to compulsorily file income tax every year. By the way, there is also a state in the country where people have got Income Tax Exemption . The name of that state is Sikkim.
Sikkim was merged with India on the condition that its old laws and special status would remain intact. Because of which the state followed its own Sikkim Income Tax Manual 1948, which had been governing the tax laws since 1975. Under this rule, no resident of Sikkim had to pay tax to the Centre.
Exemption to 94 percent people
In the year 2008, the tax laws of Sikkim were cancelled. The residents of the state were exempted from tax by adding Section 10 (26AAA) in the Union Budget of that year. A clause in the Act protected the special status accorded to Sikkim and “Sikkim” was added as per Article 371(f).
In 2008, the central government gave income tax exemption to more than 94 percent of Sikkimese people, but left out 500 families. Who refused to give up his Indian citizenship. Under Section 10 (26AAA), the people of Sikkim were exempted from income earned in the state or by way of dividend or interest on securities.
PAN card is also not required
Apart from this, the market regulator SEBI also exempted the residents of Sikkim from the mandatory PAN requirement for investing in the Indian securities market and mutual funds. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of India held that the benefit of tax exemption provided in Section 10(26AAA) would be extended to all Sikkimese, including those permanently settled in the state prior to Sikkim’s merger with India.
The Supreme Court gave the decision
Prior to the SC ruling, the income tax exemption did not cover Sikkimese Sikkimese Indians who had permanently settled in the state prior to 1975, when Sikkim merged with India. The Supreme Court’s decision was in response to a petition filed by the Association of Old Settlers of Sikkim (AOSS) in 2013, seeking to exclude from IT exemption those who were not Sikkimese by origin, but migrated after their merger with India or Then they were living there before merging with India.
This rule is for these people
The court directed the state to incorporate a clause section 10 (26AAA) to extend income tax exemption to all Indian citizens residing in Sikkim on or before April 26, 1975. Further, the apex court has excluded a Sikkimese woman who married a non-Sikkimese man after April 1, 2008, from the exempted category under Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution of India.
