As per a brand new rule by the Government, all actors (be it from films or TV) could be required to pay 12% service tax on their earnings along with their income tax payments.
Effective July 1, the federal government has embraced new taxation of services by introducing a negative list. Any service out of this list or out of the exempted list of services (that may be changed every now and then) may be charged service tax. However, if a person or an organization has an annual income of lower than Rs 10 lakh, the merchant can avail exemption and shall not be obliged to pay any tax.
Needless to mention this new rule has not gone down too well with members of the film fraternity. Keeping her humour intact, Farah Khan tweeted, "N just as iv turned 'actress' the govt.has decided 2 also charge 12.5% service tax 2 all actors! that is tooo much.kitna nichodogey yaar?" Sonam Kapoor tweeted, "Really more tax. This government sucks. Corrupt and useless. We're just filling every politicians pockets with money. If my money really went into developing my country Id be more than pleased to provide it."
Arshad Warsi also seemed unhappy with the brand new rule when he tweeted, "With this service tax, there'll be some more jobless actors... Blame it at the tax. Very soon all Actors payment will go on to the govt. n they are going to start giving us the little percent that may be left for us as salary."
