COST INFLATION INDEX 2009-10 NOTIFIED

COST INFLATION INDEX 2009-10 NOTIFIED: "

Today (09.09.2009) Cost Inflation index for Financial Year 2009-10 Has been notified.The Index is to be used for the calculation of Long term capital Gain on Capital assets .More over person who has sold their assets in April & looking to invest money in Bonds is looking for this Notification as time limit for investment as per section 54EC is 6month from date of transfer of capital assets which is going to be expire in October 2009 for such persons.

NOTIFICATION NO

67/2009, Dated: September 9, 2009

In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (v) of the Explanation to section 48 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961), the Central Government hereby makes the following amendment in the notification of the Government of India in the Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue), Central Board of Direct Taxes, number S.O.709(E), dated the 20th August, 1998, namely :-

In the said notification, in the Table, after serial number 28 and the entries relating thereto, the following serial number and entries shall be inserted, namely:-

“29

2009-10

632”

F.No.142/13/2009-TPL

(Vijay Kumar Jaiswal)

Under Secretary (TPL-IV)

Note :- The principal notification was published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section(ii), vide number S.O.709(E), dated the 20th August, 1998 and was last amended vide number S.O. 2037(E), dated the 13th August, 2008.

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ReadyBoost on Windows 7, Anyone?

ReadyBoost on Windows 7, Anyone?: "

ReadyBoost is a feature first introduced in Windows Vista wherein an external drive when plugged in the Vista box can be utilized for memory functions by the operating system. The Windows Vista with ReadyBoost would theoretically act as a memory extension for the operating system and cache would be put in their for faster access of the system.

Flash drive manufacturers had all sorts of flash drive ready for ReadyBoost but as it turns out the utilization of Windows Vista didn’t show significant improvements. The real winners are the manufacturers not the users here.

In Windows 7 however, reports say that the ReadyBoost is showing significant improvements during shut down times and during the usage of the operating system.

Joseph Plazo from Connected Internet says that Adobe Audition show some delightful results and when playing very large soundfiles that are around 60 MB to 120 MB of hard disk space things seems a lot faster. When tried the ReadyBoost Joseph consistently experienced 20% better performance especially when operating on very large files and when the USB flash drive is unplugged, performance decline is noticeable.

This is really very good news since my current laptop has only 2 GB of RAM and for technical reasons I wouldn’t be able to upgrade this any further. The performance of my computer is declining as more patches and upgrades on various applications are installed and getting a toll on my computer. When I hear that ReadyBoost in Windows 7 works and provides an additional 20% increase in performance, I would definitely want to reformat and install the latest operating system from Microsoft.

This is the easiest and simplest hardware upgrade for aging computers and I hope that it really works. I still don’t know which USB drives are best suited for this task on Windows 7 but would definitely be on the lookout.

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Get Cool Website Icons and Buttons For Free At IconFinder

Get Cool Website Icons and Buttons For Free At IconFinder

via MakeUseOf.com by Karl L. Gechlik on 9/3/09

I find myself using the same crappy buttons on websites because that is all I have. Everyone knows that buttons and icons are a integral part of any website. So it's always back to the drawing board and start making new icons!

Time and time again I have to create custom icons and buttons for clients. Now with IconFinder that is a thing of the past. IconFinder is a search engine that will return icons or png files with free website icons. They allow you to change the background of each from either black, white or transparent as well as filter results for a commercial website or just for personal use.

Let's take a look at Icon Finder:

Just like any other search engine the search bar and options are at the top. Type in a search term and hit that search button. It will then search through their 109,067 free website icons and 206 icon sets. Not too shabby for a new site.

After hitting that search button you will be shown your results. They will look like this:

Now you can click on one to download or view it but check out these features. Click on the transparent or black button under background color and watch the free website icons change to meet your requirements:

You can also narrow down your results to only show commercial images or ones you can use personally by hitting this:

Once you see the image you want to download click on it and it will bring up another screen that looks like this:

You see from this screen that you can grab the PNG file or the ICO file. It also has the dimensions – in this case it is 128×128 – a nice size for an icon. There is a link to show all icons in this set and tags/ratings.

When we click on the show all icons in this icon set button we get this:

These images are free for commercial use! WOOT! That means I do not need to pay any royalties or fees to use these in a website that makes someone money. I can't express how awesome this is. Consider this the equivalent of Creative Commons for icons!

I ran a few other searches before I bounced, including this left arrow search:

These icons are great for small buttons designating back or forward.

The site is pretty new and I can only assume that as time goes on the site will get bigger and be filled with more and more icons. If you create icons I am sure you can get some recognition by uploading them to their site. You can browse all those sets by hitting the browse sets button.

That will take you to a page that looks like this:

You can then click on the entire set and view all of the icons in it. This is great for sticking with a static theme throughout the website.

Where do you grab your icon files from? We would love to hear about more icon download sites in the comments! Don't be shy guys!

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New Features in Forms

New Features in Forms: "Today, we added a few new features to Google forms:

Grid question type

You can now quickly gather responses for a group of similar questions in a new, compact grid format. The new grid question type allows you to label a few columns and create as many rows as you like.

Each row result appears in its own spreadsheet column, with its own summary chart, which brings us to...

Improved results summary charts

We've polished up our results summary charts, with clearer formatting of statistics and better formatting of charts for each question type.

Bi-directional language support

The form editor now supports right-to-left (RTL) text input. When you enter RTL text in the form editor, it will automatically switch the directionality of the form editor and rendered forms (similar to Gmail and other Google Apps). This means your text and questions will flip directionality, making it easier for RTL users to create and use forms.

Sign-in to view form

If you are a Google Apps customer, there are now two options to help you use forms within your organization. In addition to the being able to automatically collect respondent's usernames, we now offer the ability to require sign-in to view a form. This provides an additional layer of security for sensitive forms.

Pre-populate a form with parameters

For developers who would like to integrate forms with their own applications, we now provide an easy way to pre-populate a form with data. Simply append an entry string for each response field you'd like to pre-populate. As an example, this URL...

http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=12345&entry_0=Barack&entry_1=Obama&entry_2=1600+Pennsylvania+Ave&entry_3=pistachios|spinach|broccoli&entry_4=8/4/1967

... pre-populates the form below....

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HOUSE PROPERTY INCOME –DIRECT TAX CODE

HOUSE PROPERTY INCOME –DIRECT TAX CODE: "

Major changes has been made in calculation of house property income under direct tax code,2009.Like Income from employment (salary Income) major exemption has been removed under direct tax code .Moreover a new notional income concept has been introduced in the Income from house property. Main provisions of direct tax code relating to Income from House property are given below.



1. Letting Business also Covered: Income from House property is covered /calculated under House property Head even the person is in business of letting.

2. Property used for/in business: Like earlier provisions Income from property or portion of property which person occupies for his business is not covered under this chapter.

3. Joint owner: Joint owner provisions remain as it is .Separate calculation for income shall be done to Person who has definite and ascertainable share in property for their respective shares.



4. House property: “house property” means,-(a) any building or land appurtenant thereto; or (b) any building along with any machinery, plant, furniture or any other facility if the letting of such building is inseparable from the letting of the machinery, plant, furniture or facility. So as per new provision plant & machinery rent is also covered under house property where these facilities are inseparable. Earlier if rent agreements define the details of each portion then only building rent is covered under House property income.

5. Gross Rent: The gross rent in respect of a property shall be the higher of the amount of contractual rent and presumptive rent, for the financial year.

6. The contractual rent : shall be the rent receivable by the assessee under a contract, whether in writing or otherwise.

7. The presumptive rent: shall be six per cent. of

a. the ratable value fixed by any local authority in respect of the property; or

b. the cost of construction or acquisition of the property if no such value has been fixed by the local authority.

8. Minimum Rent: So as per point 5-7 , Minimum gross rent shall be considered 6 % of the property value (cost) whether the actual rent received is less than this Figure.

9. One House property :If a person own more than one house then value of any one house can be treated as Nil subject to that

a. No other benefit derives from that house

b. House or part of the house is not let out during the financial year.

10. Deduction for repair & maintenance: 20 % of the Gross rent (earlier it was 30 %)

11. Deduction for Local tax :The amount of taxes levied by a local authority in respect of the property if the amount is actually paid during the financial year;

12. Deduction for Service Tax: the amount of tax on services paid to the Central Government in respect of rent, if the amount is actually paid during the financial year;

13. Deduction for Interest on House property : on capital borrowed for the purposes of acquiring, constructing, repairing, renewing or reconstructing the property, or on capital borrowed for the purpose of repayment of the capital is unlimited in case of let out house or where presumptive rent is applicable.

14. Self Occupied House property: In case of self occupied house or deemed to be self occupied house no deduction is available and its income can not be negative. This is major shift in policy as many person has taken a long term House property loans with a view to save tax but now all doors has been shut for such a tax planning.

15. Interest on Pre construction period: No provisions for interest on Pre construction period interest .earlier it was available in five installments.

16. Not ready for Use: The above provision will also not applicable on house property which is not ready to use during the financial year. What is meaning of “not ready for use” is not defined This clause can be misused where presumptive valuation is involved by keeping the House property as “ot ready for use”

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ICICI Pru MF launches FMP Series 49 3 Years Plan A

ICICI Pru MF launches FMP Series 49 3 Years Plan A

ICICI Pru MF launches FMP Series 49 3 Years Plan A:

"ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund has launched Fixed Maturity Plan Series 49 – Three Years Plan A, a closedended debt scheme, seeks to generate regular returns by investing in a portfolio of fixed income securities / debt instruments which mature on or before the date of maturity of the plan/scheme."

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The Nokia Booklet 3G + Windows 7 = Awesome Mobility

The Nokia Booklet 3G + Windows 7 = Awesome Mobility: "

Today at Nokia World 09, Nokia will be talking more about their upcoming new “mini laptop” the Nokia Booklet 3G which was announced last week.

Nokia has just announced that the Nokia Booklet 3G will ship with Windows 7. The Nokia Booklet 3G comes with built in A-GPS functionality. Because of this, it can take advantage of the Windows Sensor and Location Platform which means your PC and programs can know where they are for “location aware” computing. With built in 3G/HSPA capabilities, it will also utilize Windows 7’s mobile broadband enhancements. The Nokia Booklet 3G + Windows 7 is an exciting combination!

The Nokia Booklet 3G brings Nokia’s extensive experience to the PC for a fresh perspective. With the Nokia Booklet 3G, Nokia wants you to be able to leave your cables and chargers at home – just like with a mobile phone. With up to 12 hours of battery life, the Nokia Booklet 3G is perfect for all-day mobility. Nokia as adopted its overall “design DNA” with the design of its first laptop. The Nokia Booklet 3G features a premium design with a chassis made from a single piece of machined aluminum. The aluminum chassis is strong and robust. It requires no fan (that’s right – no fan) making for one quiet PC. The HD display for the Nokia Booklet 3G is glass covered for a crisp and clear view of the screen. Nokia wanted to keep the design clean and uncluttered so the Nokia Booklet 3G includes a single HDMI port, 3 USB ports and a single headphone jack that doubles also for a microphone.

The performance is equally as impressive as its design. The Nokia Booklet 3G is designed to go from being shutdown to checking email or browsing the web in around a minute.

For a better look at the Nokia Booklet 3G, I suggest checking out this really slick video here. A for the full spec line-up, click here.

I look forward to checking out the Nokia Booklet 3G in the very near future. Stay tuned for more information (it will be available in a number of markets the 4th quarter 2009) and pricing.

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What is Windows Home Server?

What is Windows Home Server?: "

Since Windows Home Server is a new addition to The Windows Blog, we thought it would be a good idea to give everyone a refresh on what exactly Windows Home Server is and what it can do for you.

Windows Home Server was designed for households and home-based offices that have more than one personal computer. It was created to help you simplify your digital life, and provide an easy way to access your media and files from any computer, inside or outside your home. The leading benefits of Windows Home Server will help you “Share, Protect, Organize, and Grow” all of your digital content on up to 10 PCs through three basic services. These include automatic PC back-up, restoration ; document and file sharing ; and remote access capabilities. Windows Home Server software will typically be sold with new server hardware from companies like Acer and HP.

The great news about this product is that you don’t have to be computer savvy to set it up or to use it. To get your home server up and running, it only takes three easy steps: plug in the power, connect an Ethernet cord, and install the Windows Home Server connector software.

Starting to sound pretty cool? Let’s take a closer look at each of these features.

Organize:

Let’s pretend that you just got back from an amazing vacation and uploaded all of your new photos to one of your home PCs. Now, your family is over and wanting to see them, but you forgot which computer and folder you put them on. Instead of spending the time it takes to search through multiple locations, you could be using Windows Home Server and enjoying your picture slideshow. Windows Home Server provides an effortless way to organize and manage all of your media including the vacation pictures. After installation, a pre-defined set of shared folders will be shown: Photos, Music, and Videos. Windows Home Server will organize your family’s files and media, by storing them in one of the shared locations. Since all of these files will be stored in a central place, they can easily be found and accessed from any computer on your home or office network. Therefore, it doesn’t really matter which computer you put your pictures on since you can see them on any computer that is connected to your Home Server. Furthermore, if you enable user access, everyone on your network will have the ability to add and view media that is located in the Shared Folders.

*Organize devices

Protect:

I think we have all experienced the feeling of losing important files or pictures we love, and it is absolutely devastating. Everyone is aware that you should regularly back-up your computer in order to prevent loss of these valuable things. However, how often do you really find yourself doing it? With Windows Home Server, you will no longer need to run around your house with USB hard drives doing manual backups. Instead, Windows Home Server enables you to rest easy knowing that all of your irreplaceable videos and pictures are safe with Windows Home Server’s daily, automatic image based back-up and restoration feature.

The ability to restore individual files or even your entire computer is what makes backing up significant. Restoration can include accidentally deleted files (documents, music, pictures, videos), or complete computers. If your vacation pictures or crucial financial information accidentally get deleted, they will not be lost forever since you can restore to a previous point in time. You can also increase protection of certain files with Windows Home Server with since you have the ability to duplicate your shared folders. When you have more than one hard drive in your Home Server, your memories and files can then be stored and copied across multiple hard drives.

Share:

Windows Home Server helps families and small offices centralize and connect their digital experiences. It provides an easy and reliable way to store, access, and share whatever is most important through remote access. Like other features of Windows Home Server, remote access is fast and simple to use!

When using remote access, Windows Home Server lets you stay connected with friends and family. Once installed, your Home Server will automatically assign you an uncomplicated web address such as “yourname.homeserver.net”. You will then be able to share pictures, music, and documents through the password protected web address. From this site, you can upload media to the Shared Folders on your Home Server when using PCs that are not on your home network. This will give your friends and family the ability to log in through the personalized web address and download any pictures or files that you may have there. It is also simple to locate, view files, and even run applications from your home PC just as if you were sitting in front of that computer.

Grow:

With Windows Home Server, storage space grows as your digital life grows. The ability to increase the number of drives in your Home Server is one of the biggest innovations for Windows Home Server. You can very easily add internal or external hard drives of any size so that you will have an unlimited amount of storage for your collection of files, photos, and videos. Once you have two or more drives plugged in, the server will see this additional storage as one large drive instead of many individual drives. This will result in a much easier process when locating and storing files since you will only be searching through one virtual drive.

*Acer Easy Store

Your Home Server is also fully expandable meaning you have the option to download extra features to help customize your Home Server. The development community has created “add-ins” for Windows Home Server that extends its capabilities in fun, exciting, and useful ways. There are currently over 100 add-ins available for download including “Whiist” for photo sharing, and “Lights Out” for power conservation.

For more detailed information about Windows Home Server, check out the product guide at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/support.mspx.

To purchase and learn more about Windows Home Server, please visit www.microsoft.com/windowshomeserver.

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SERVICE TAX ON RAILWAY FREIGHT-EXCEPTIONS

SERVICE TAX ON RAILWAY FREIGHT-EXCEPTIONS: "

Service tax has been imposed on service provided to any person in relation to transport of goods, by rail in Finance Act(2) 2009.A new sub-clause (zzzp) of clause (105) of section 65 of the Finance Act,has been inserted in service tax act.The tax on this service is applicable from 01.09.2009.However at the time of introduction of this new service ,The Finance Minister has assured that a negative list of goods will be issued on which service tax on freight will be exempted.Now department has issued the negative list which is reproduced here under for your ready reference.

[TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE GAZZETE OF INDIA, EXTRAORDINARY, PART II, SECTION 3, SUB-SECTION (i)]

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

Department of Revenue

New Delhi, the 31^st August, 2009

Notification No. 28/2009 - Service Tax

G.S.R. (E).- In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 93 of the Finance Act, 1994 (32 of 1994), (hereinafter referred to as the Finance Act), the Central Government, on being satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest so to do, hereby exempts the taxable service provided to any person in relation to transport of goods, the description of which is specified in column (2) of the Table, by rail as referred to in sub-clause (zzzp) of clause (105) of section 65 of the Finance Act, from the whole of the service tax leviable thereon under section 66 of the Finance Act.

2. This notification shall come into force on the first day of September, 2009.

Table

Sl.No.	Description of Goods
(1)	(2)
1	Defence/ military equipments
2	Railway equipments/ materials
3	Postal mail bags
4	Relief materials meant for victims of natural or manmade disasters, calamities, accidents and mishap
5	Luggage of train passengers, whether carried as personal luggage in the train compartments or booked separately in the luggage van/Household effects
6	Parcels [including newspaper/magazines registered with Registrar of Newspapers] booked in the luggage vans, where the goods/commodity heads fall below train load class 130 as per the Indian Railway Conference Association(IRCA) Goods Tariff
7	The following goods which are classified in the IRCA Goods Tariff, as below train load class 130 and wagon load class 130 ( Formula: Train Load Class 120+10) including ‘Low Rate’ goods viz., LR1, LR2, LR3, LR4: Food grains, flours and pulses(9), Chemical Manure(6), Gunnies(21), Oil cakes and seeds(16), Soap(19), Starch(21), Salt for industrial use(18), Sugar(20), Salt (18),De-oiled cakes(16), Machinery and machine tools(14), Hides and Skins(12), Leather(12), Rubber and plastic(12), Electrical appliances and fittings(22), Empty drums(22), jerry cans and barrels(22), Jaggry(22), Jute(22), Milk and Milk products(22), Organic Manure(22), Paints and polishes(22), Timber(22), Vegetable oil pitches(22), Water(22), Fireworks(23), Boiler components(24), Charcoal(24), Paper(24) Bamboos(25), Brooms(25), Coffee and Tea(25), Cotton and other textiles(25), Fodder and Husk(25), Fruits and vegetables(25) and other perishables like fishery and marine produce, Groceries(25), Live stock(25), Motor vehicles(25), Sugar cane and Bagasse(25),Fire clay(7),Edible oils booked in covered wagons and charged as LR4, booked in 4 wheeled Tank wagon and charged as Train Load class-100
8	Kerosene oil meant for supply through public distribution system; Petroleum products including LPG Cylinders (filled and empty) booked by public sector Oil Marketing Companies transported by Indian Railways

F. No. 356/24/2009-TRU

Prashant Kumar

Under Secretary to the Government of India

CBEC has also issued a negative list for goods which is not covered under services in relation to transport of goods through national waterway, inland water and coastal shipping as referred to in sub-clause (zzzzl) of clause (105) of section 65 of the Finance Act

[TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE GAZZETE OF INDIA, EXTRAORDINARY, PART II, SECTION 3, SUB-SECTION (i)]

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

Department of Revenue

New Delhi, the 31^st August, 2009

Notification No. 30/2009 – Service Tax

G.S.R. (E).- In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 93 of the Finance Act, 1994 (32 of 1994) (hereinafter referred to as the Finance Act), the Central Government, on being satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest so to do, hereby exempts the taxable service provided to any person in relation to the transport of goods, the description of which is specified in column (2) of the Table, through national waterway, inland water and coastal shipping as referred to in sub-clause (zzzzl) of clause (105) of section 65 of the Finance Act, from the whole of service tax leviable thereon under Section 66 of the said Act.

2. This notification shall come into force on the first day of September 2009.

Table

Sl.No.	Description of Goods
(1)	(2)
1.	Foodstuffs including edible oil seeds and edible oils; food grains (cereals and pulses) and flours; fruits, vegetables and flowers; agricultural, fishery, marine produce; meat and poultry; water; tea and coffee; salt, sugar, sugarcane; grocery; milk and milk products; livestock and cattle fodder; dhoties , sarees and voils; long cloth, sheeting Fertilizer whether inorganic, organic or mixed;
2	Petroleum and petroleum products;
3	Hank yarn made wholly from cotton;
4	Hank yarn made wholly from cotton;
5	Raw jute and jute textile;
6	Seeds of food crops and seeds of fruits and vegetables; seeds of cattle fodder and jute seeds;
7	Medicine/pharmaceutical products;
8	Relief materials meant for victims of natural or manmade disasters, calamities, accidents and mishap;
9	Defence/ military equipments.
10	Luggage of passengers, whether carried as personal luggage in the ship or booked separately as consignment/ postal mail / mail bags/Household effects
11	Newspaper/magazines registered with Registrar of Newspapers.

[F. No. 354/163/2009-TRU]

(Prashant Kumar)

Under Secretary to the Government of India

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