The Income Tax department has begun the process to examine bank deposits and transactions to check possible black money instances and said once the last opportunity to declare funds in old notes under the PMGKY scheme ends it will be very tough for hoarders.
'We have not issued notices randomly.' 'We have done the risk profiling of individuals, and sent to those whose profile has not matched with their declared income.'
The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), the federal economic snoop agency under the Union finance ministry, sent 289 legal requests to its counterparts across the globe during 2018-19 as compared to 177 in 2017-18 and 138 in 2016-17.
In 2019-20 Budget, the government had increased surcharge from 15 per cent to 25 per cent on those with taxable income between Rs 2-5 crore and from 15 per cent to 37 per cent for income above Rs 5 crore. Following the increase, the effective income tax rate for individuals with a taxable income of Rs 2-5 crore will go up from 35.88 per cent to 39 per cent and for those above Rs 5 crore it would go up to 42.7 per cent.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money has decided to create a rich national database where multiple agencies probing tax and financial crimes will pool in vital classified information to be shared for seamless investigation.
Income tax officials have directed property dealers and registration authorities to prepare a list of top property deals that have taken place in the last three years.
The Income Tax department has sent a detailed questionnaire to about 50 individuals and entities figuring in the list of those allegedly holding offshore assets in tax havens.
"Had corona (COVID-19) not been there, the prime minister would have dedicated NATGRID to the country. I am hopeful that the prime minister will dedicate NATGRID to the country in some time," Union home minister Amit Shah said during the 51st Foundation Day event of the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) here on September 4.
Is India headed there again? questions Ajit Balakrishnan
The new office will have its base in the national capital.
Donald Trump's exaggerated opinion of his dealmaking capacity can get him into trouble, observes R Sriram.
'Domestic investors are opening up to the idea of high-growth Internet companies as a pool of value creation.' 'They like the execution that they see with Zepto, and for us, that is the most important factor.'
'The IAS officers are after the rich people, the IRS officers are after the middle class and the IPS officers are after the poor. This is the new varnashrama created by the bureaucracy.'
The Centre and states are looking to further tighten the GST registration process and legal measures to deal with the rising cases of fake invoicing. A meeting of the law committee of the GST Council has been convened on Wednesday to discuss these issues, finance ministry sources said. The committee, comprising senior central and state tax officers, would also discuss the GST fake invoice frauds, further tightening of the GST registration process and work out other legal measures including necessary law amendment required in the GST Act to curb the menace of fake invoicing, they added. Also the provisions related to deemed registration under Goods and Services Tax (GST) law may be tightened to prevent the misuse of such provisions by fake dealers and the provisions related to suspension of registration may also be streamlined to make the procedure of suspension and cancellation of registration more efficient and faster, so that such fraud operators can be prevented in time from continuing to pass on fake credit down the chain.
The searches are linked to suspected movement of hawala money during the ongoing polls season and tax evasion.
In an extensive exercise to track overseas bank accounts of Indians and round-tripping of funds, top investigating agencies in the country are gathering actionable intelligence on chartered accountants, brokers, legal firms and professionals involved in these areas.
Financial Intelligence Unit data show many of these societies have become the biggest draw for laundering money. Subhomoy Bhattacharjee reports.
Finance Ministry issues strict instructions on foreign bank accounts.
The study report will be based on the investigation and intelligence reports of the Income Tax department which conducts nation-wide searches and raids in the country to unearth tax evasion and flow of blackmoney.
It was not immediately known if the residential premises of the industrialist were also being searched by the sleuths.
The Income Tax department is mulling to arm its soon-to-be-appointed 'special agents' who will be tasked to crack high-profile tax evasion and money laundering cases in the country.
Penalty can be levied at 100-300 per cent of the tax evaded, while tax is imposed at the highest rate of 30 per cent.
The value of assets seized during raids by the Income Tax Department has more than doubled in last five years, as the department started going after the 'big fish'.
Sources in the Special Cell said that now arrests are likely to follow across the country.
The department will impose a penalty, which could be between 30 per cent and 120 per cent.
PAN could be used by the probe agencies.
Department has decided to keep a tab on the trade by putting its intelligence wing on the job.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has come across layered financial transactions undertaken by officials and politicians accused in the Uttar Pradesh National Rural Health Mission scam to cover tracks of illegal gratification and has involved Income Tax department and Financial Intelligence Unit to unearth the money trail.
The cumulative seizure of such illegal inducements in the five poll-going states -- Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa and Punjab -- stood at Rs 1,039.50 crore, the sources said, adding that it included drugs worth Rs 571.34 crore.
The I-T department expects that some more revenue would be garnered.
'The prime minister's advisers might have told him that going along with this AIADMK government will damage his image.'
The minister emphasised that use of modern technology can yield far better results as far as tax collections are concerned than any other way.
The move is believed to be coming after Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence slapped a notice demanding Rs 252 crore (Rs 2.52 billion) that was allegedly evaded by the chocolate maker for its new unit in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh even before it came into existence, official sources said.
The finance ministry (FinMin) has asked Infosys to work on ways to extract and access taxpayers' real-time data faster and accurately as it is crucial for taking decisions on policy changes. While reviewing progress of the income tax portal 2.0, which had faced glitches, the officials also told the Infosys team to increase the scope of pre-filled data in the ITR forms. Senior officials in the ministry held a review meeting last month with the Infosys team and officials of the Central Processing Centre (CPC).
The Income Tax department on Monday approached a Hyderabad court seeking copies of the documents seized by the Central Bureau of Intelligence during the probe of corruption allegations against Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy and the alleged irregularities in the Emaar Properties land deal.
The Union Budget on Wednesday outlined several initiatives to drive India's technology agenda and boost digital infrastructure, including new centres of excellence for artificial intelligence, National Data Governance Policy, and Entity DigiLocker.
Here are the key highlights of the Interim Budget 2019-20 presented by Finance Minister Piyush Goyal in the Lok Sabha on Friday.
Senior Congress leader Kishore Chandra Deo, who headed a parliamentary panel that probed the 2008 'cash-for-votes' scam allegedly involving some members of the Lok Sabha, on Thursday said there cannot be any inquiry on the basis of "so-called" cable leak as its authenticity has to be verified
Official sources said the ED will focus on the event managers and will also issue summons to them under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) to explain how they got the foreign exchange that was paid to the singer.
