Taxmen eye what you post online

new delhi — A photo of your shiny new luxury car on Instagram or a costly watch on Facebook may lead the taxman to your door as the tax department from next month will begin amassing virtual information to trace black money.

‘Project Insight’, likely to be launched next month, will use big data analytics to match info from social media sites to deduce mismatches between spending pattern and income declaration. The IT department will analyse mismatches in income declarations and spending patterns to trace tax evasions and black money, an official said.

The government has also made linking of PAN with Aadhaar mandatory to get a 360 degree view of a person’s income and assets.

The tax department had last year signed a pact with L&T Infotech for implementation of Project Insight, which is designed to strengthen the non-intrusive information driven approach for improving tax compliance.

“Currently beta testing is on and the integrated platform for Project Insight should be launched by next month,” the official said.

Project Insight has been initiated by the income tax department for data mining, collection, collation and processing of such information for effective risk management with a view to widen and deepen the tax base. It will help the taxmen monitor high value transactions, and curb the circulation of black money. — PTI