The Income Tax Department has sent intimation notices to 22,000 taxpayers whose ITRs do not match their actual income. These include salaried, rich and trust. These notices have been sent in the last 15 days.
Income Tax Department has sent information notices to 22,000 taxpayers. According to an Economic Times report, these include salaried and ultra-rich individuals and trusts whose deductions do not match the information given in their Form 16 or Annual Information Statement (AIS) or the data available with the Income Tax Department. According to the information, all these information notices have been sent in the last 15 days for tax returns filed for the assessment year 2023-24. The department sent around 12,000 such notices to salaried taxpayers where the difference between the tax deduction claimed in their returns and the department’s own data was more than ₹50,000.
It has also sent information notices to around 8,000 taxpayers who have filed returns under Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) where the income mismatch between the returns filed and the department’s data was more than ₹50 lakh, including 900 extremely rich. Individuals in whose case the difference was ₹5 crore and above and 1,200 trust and partnership firms where the difference was ₹10 crore and above. Overall, primary data analytics have identified irregularities and discrepancies in the returns filed in case of approximately 2 lakh taxpayers. In these, the income disclosure or expenditure by the return filers or the bank account details do not match with the data collected by the department on the basis of transactions related to their bank or UPI account.
what will happen next
An Income Tax officer said, ‘This is the first information notice. Only if the taxpayers do not respond to it or fail to provide any explanation, the demand notice will be processed. Taxpayers can pay the tax dues with the updated return along with interest or provide detailed information about the same. In some cases, taxpayers have not included capital gains, dividend income in filing returns or have completely excluded information about their other bank accounts.
Another official said more detailed sector-wise data analysis is being done in case of corporates, trust and partnership firms and small businesses. Another officer said, ‘Digitization of the economy has made it easier for them to track any deliberate tax evasion. Better coordination of account aggregators will make tax evasion more difficult. “Work is already underway to make the Annual Information Statement (AIS) more detailed.”
what is special
- Information notices sent in the last 15 days for tax returns filed for assessment year 2023-24
- 12,000 notices have been sent to salaried taxpayers whose difference between the tax deduction claimed in their returns and the department’s own data was more than ₹50,000
- Information notices have also been sent to 8,000 Hindu Undivided Family taxpayers where the income mismatch is more than ₹50 lakh.
- 900 extremely rich people have received notices in whose case the difference was Rs 5 crore and above
- 1,200 such trust and partnership firms have also received notice in whose case the income mismatch was ₹ 10 crore and more.
