The Income Tax department will start sending SMS/emails to about 25,000 individuals, who are part of the "high-risk" cases identified for non-disclosure of foreign assets in the income tax returns (ITRs) filed for Assessment Year (AY) 2025-26, sources said.
In September last year, India received financial information from over 108 countries regarding foreign accounts and income in the form of interest and dividend earned outside India.
The income-tax (I-T) department has issued showcause notices under Section 68 of the Income-Tax Act to several startups over funds routed through Singapore, seeking explanations for investments received over the past five years, people familiar with the development said. The department is questioning the source, identity, and creditworthiness of overseas investors in these transactions, they said.
The income tax department on Saturday said it has launched a campaign to send messages to taxpayers who have not disclosed high-value foreign income or assets in their ITRs for AY 2024-25. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has launched a Compliance-Cum-Awareness Campaign for Assessment Year (AY) 2024-25 to assist taxpayers in accurately completing Schedule Foreign Assets (Schedule FA) and reporting income from foreign sources (Schedule FSI) in their income tax returns (ITR).
The details that have been shared include identification, account and financial information, including name, address, country of residence and tax identification number, as well as information concerning the reporting financial institution, account balance and capital income.
India has received the third set of Swiss bank account details of its nationals under an automatic exchange of information pact with Switzerland, as part of an annual exercise under which the European nation has shared the particulars of nearly 33 lakh financial accounts with 96 countries.
The ED probe into alleged money laundering by crypto exchange WazirX and the subsequent squabbling among its promoters has revealed the 'darker side' of cryptocurrencies, a top government source said on Thursday. The source added that people should exercise caution in absence of a regulation to govern cryptocurrencies and so-called exchanges trading in them. "Caution is the word that should be in the minds of the people dealing with crypto. "In the episode of WazirX, people got to know many darker sides, caution is necessary in crypto transaction," the source said.
Funds parked by Indian individuals and firms in Swiss banks, including through India-based branches and other financial institutions, declined by 11 per cent in 2022 to 3.42 billion Swiss francs (nearly Rs 30,000 crore), annual data from Switzerland's central bank showed on Thursday.
Switzerland has been perceived for long as a safe haven for alleged illicit funds or black money
Marking a key milestone in the Indian government's fight against black money allegedly stashed abroad, India will get this month the complete information on flats, apartments and condominiums owned by Indians in Switzerland as also on earnings made from such properties to help it look into tax liabilities associated with those assets.
India has got the second set of Swiss bank account details of its nationals and entities under the automatic exchange of information pact with Switzerland, marking a key milestone in the government's fight against black money allegedly stashed abroad.
India is among 75 countries with which Switzerland's Federal Tax Administration has exchanged information on financial accounts within the framework of global standards on Automatic Exchange of Information.
Switzerland will not share details about accounts held prior to September 2018.
India has already signed the OECD's global standard for automatic exchange of information between tax authorities two years back and once the new format is implemented, the country will follow the new protocols envisaged in it.
India has received the fourth set of Swiss bank account details of its nationals and organisations as part of an annual automatic information exchange under which Switzerland has shared particulars of nearly 34 lakh financial accounts with 101 countries.
The income-tax (I-T) department is working on integrating the new e-filing portal with stock exchanges to help tax authorities track trade transactions, including futures and options. The integrated system will look at discrepancies between the data disclosed by an assessee and match it with data fetched from stock exchanges, using artificial intelligence, said two officials in the know. This will help detect and red-flag such matters, particularly those related to non-filers of income-tax return (ITR).
India and a large number of other countries, including Switzerland, have adopted a global declaration for automatic exchange of tax information under auspices of OECD.
Funds parked by Indian individuals and firms in Swiss banks, including through India-based branches and other financial institutions, jumped to a 14-year-high of 3.83 billion Swiss francs (over Rs 30,500 crore) in 2021 on a sharp surge in holdings via securities and similar instruments while customer deposits rose as well, annual data from Switzerland's central bank showed on Thursday.
The G20 in 2013 had unanimously agreed to a 15 point action plan to check BEPS
As the debate on alleged black money stashed by Indians in Swiss banks continues, Switzerland on Monday said it is looking forward to working together with the new government of India in its fight against tax evasion.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is likely to oppose suggestions to introduce a financial transaction tax, commonly known as tobin tax.
The Swiss Finance Ministry spokesperson recently confirmed that a meeting is expected in the coming weeks, but did not disclose any further details.
To curb the black money problem, Jaitley said that India would be entering into bilateral pacts with Switzerland and other countries for automatic exchange of tax information.
The finance ministry on Saturday asserted that Indian customer deposits in Swiss banks have fallen since 2019, but said it is seeking details from Swiss authorities on the relevant facts along with their view on possible reasons for changes in the funds parked by individuals and entities in 2020. In a statement, the ministry said the deposits have halved but did not give numbers. Quoting data from Switzerland's central bank, PTI had reported on June 17 that funds parked by Indian individuals and firms in Swiss banks, including through India-based branches and other financial institutions, jumped to a 13-year high of 2.55 billion Swiss francs (over Rs 20,700 crore) in 2020 on a sharp surge in holdings via securities and similar instruments, though customer deposits fell.
India has been spearheading the campaign at international fora for automatic exchange of information with a view to check tax evasion.
In a major development in the fight against black money, multilateral grouping OECD today unveiled a 'single global standard' for automatic exchange of financial account information by various countries including India and Switzerland.
China became the 56th signatory to the agreement by signing the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. With this all the G20 nations, including India, have become official partners to combat the menace of tax crimes and evasion across international borders.
Funds parked by Indian individuals and firms in Swiss banks, including through India-based branches and other financial institutions, jumped to 2.55 billion Swiss francs (over Rs 20,700 crore) in 2020 on a sharp surge in holdings via securities and similar instruments, though customer deposits fell, annual data from Switzerland's central bank showed on Thursday. The increase in aggregate funds of Indian clients with Swiss banks, from 899 million Swiss francs (Rs 6,625 crore) at the end of 2019, reverses a two-year declining trend and has taken the figure to the highest level in 13 years. It stood at a record high of nearly 6.5 billion Swiss francs in 2006, after which it has been mostly on a downward path, except for a few years including in 2011, 2013 and 2017, as per the Swiss National Bank (SNB) data.
A new framework has been put in place for automatic exchange of information between Switzerland and India to help check the black money menace with effect from January 1, 2018. The funds held by Indians through fiduciaries alone used to be in billions till 2007 but began falling after that amid fears of regulatory crackdown. It is now at second-lowest level in 20 years.
Occasionally, a whistle-blower releases sensitive financial data.
PM is expected to discuss black money issue with Swiss President.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that his government is unsparing when it comes to punishing the corrupt and listed out the steps initiated by him to curb the menace.
Government may bring a new law on black money during the ongoing Parliament session.
Armed with automatic information exchange pact with the US, government on Thursday asked persons holding undisclosed offshore assets to declare them before September 30 as it would be difficult to hide unaccounted assets in future.
Experts of both the countries will meet by mid-September 2016 to further discuss the modalities for the reciprocal bilateral implementation of AEOI between India and Switzerland with a view to reaching an agreement at the earliest, possibly by the end of the year
FATCA will facilitate flow of financial information between countries.
Arun Jaitley has promised a compliance window under the new black money law for persons with overseas funds to come clean.
Replying to a question in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman said the drive against tax evasion is an ongoing process and the government has taken various steps under a multi-pronged strategy to deal with the issue of black money.
India has called for implementation of the automatic exchange of tax info.
India and Singapore had in 2013 amended the DTAA to help exchange banking and tax-related information more effectively.
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