ITR Filing: More than 3 crore income tax returns have been filed so far. 91 percent of returns are verified electronically. The screws are being tightened on those who put up fake rent receipts.
The Income Tax Department has tightened its noose on salaried taxpayers who have resorted to fake documents for higher tax deductions and refunds. These include fake house rent receipts taken from close relatives, additional claims for home loans and fake donation papers. The department has started investigation against these taxpayers after finding discrepancies in the returns and has sought answers by sending notices.
It is being told that the Income Tax Department has asked these taxpayers to provide documents as proof for claiming tax exemption. Not only this, the department has also asked taxpayers to disclose the name, address and contact number of the chartered accountant or tax expert preparing and filing the ITR.
Data matching with the help of technology: According to tax experts, this time the Income Tax Department is sorting the returns filed with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology and data collected from various sources (Big Data). Taxpayers often use fake rent receipts to get more tax exemption, but if the landlord has not given details of the rent amount in his return, AI is catching it immediately. Earlier this work used to take time. Taxpayer thinks who will investigate the claims of small amount, so they file bogus claims.
Notice was issued to eight thousand: Along with this, the department has also started investigating the claims of donation. Under this, the figures given by the charitable institutions in their returns are being matched with the details of the donor. It may be noted that in April this year, the department had issued notices to about 8,000 tax evaders in the name of charity. Companies, traders, salaried people and people running businesses were also among those who received the notices.
Get help from AIS
The Annuity Information Report (AIS) facility has recently been launched by the Income Tax Department. It contains details of tax payments and transactions made during the relevant financial year. Apart from the total tax paid, annual income, rent received, bank balance, cash deposited, cash withdrawn, credit and debit card transactions, dividends, interest earned on savings account, purchase and sale of shares and mutual funds, foreign travel, purchase and sale of property, long-term profits, refunds, 46 types of information are included. This can be accessed from the Income Tax Department’s website and matched with the figures given in the return.
Must disclose this in ITR
1. Provide information on children’s accounts
2. Details of interest received in savings account
3. Profit from any investment plan
4. Income from any other interest
5. Information on investments made abroad
Category wise last date for filing ITR
1. July 31 for salaried and other individual and small taxpayers
2. October 31 for traders whose accounts need to be audited
3. November 30 for businesses with international or domestic transactions
4. December 31 to file Revised ITR
