OVER 10K PROPERTY DEALS UNDER I-T SCANNER
The tax dept is expected to launch Project Insight in collaboration with L&T infotech by next month; to make evasion even tougher
The Income-Tax department has identified over 10,000 individuals who have bought properties but have not paid tax. Part of the second round of Operation Clean Money, the tax department is examining property transactions worth over ~1 crore. The department has roped in four global data mining companies to profile taxpayers and map their transactions. “We have identified cases where people have bought property but have not paid taxes. These cases are across the country. More than 10,000 people have come under scrutiny,” said a tax official, DILASHA SETH reports.
The income tax department has identified over 10,000 individuals who have bought properties but have not paid tax.
Part of the second round of Operation Clean Money, the tax department is examining property transactions worth over ~1 crore. The department has roped in four global data mining companies to profile taxpayers and map their transactions.
“We have identified cases where people have bought property but have not paid taxes. These cases are across the country. More than 10,000 people have come under scrutiny,” said a tax official.
The department is also investigating if these properties are benami holdings. The government has identified cases based on the income declared by individuals.
“We are following a non-intrusive approach, relying solely on the data mined. Notices have been sent out. Many firms and companies have also been identified, taking the number of cases higher than 10,000,” the official added.
The probe will be widened to examine property transactions of less than ~1 crore.
By next month, the tax department is expected to launch Project Insight in collaboration with L&T infotech, which will make evasion even tougher. It will collate information from various sources and profile people using their PAN details.
The government has identified 30,000 cases for scrutiny of people who tried to regularise unaccounted income by filing tax returns in response to demonetisation.
The tax department had conducted searches on 900 groups of people between November and March, resulting in seizure of ~900 crore and admission of undisclosed income of ~7,961 crore. Besides, 8,239 surveys were conducted, leading to the detection of undisclosed income of ~6,745 crore.
In 2017-18, the tax department has seized assets worth ~103 crore after conducting searches on 102 groups that admitted to undisclosed income of ~2,670 crore. The department has also conducted surveys in 202 cases, leading to detection of ~150 crore black money.
The income tax department has a steep collection target of ~9.8 lakh crore, up 15.7 per cent from the previous fiscal year. The tax rate on income between ~2.5 lakh and ~5 lakh has been lowered to five per cent from 10 per cent in 2017-18.
The Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act prescribes imprisonment of up to seven years and a fine that may extend to 25 per cent of the fair market value of the benami property.