CBDT eyes big-money spenders to broaden tax base by 10%

The big money spenders might soon be feeling the heat from the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) as in order to broaden their tax base, the CBDT is planning to focus on statements pertaining to expensive purchases or spendings, such as foreign travels, deisgner clothes, fertility clinic services, exhoribitant electricity bills and similar such spendings, a Business Standard report said.

"An elaborate central action plan is in the works on tax-broadening measures such as scrutinising statements on specified financial transactions by reporting entities in the case of high-value purchases, tightening the organised collection of data from various agencies and third parties, and proper checks on statements on tax deducted at source/tax collected at source by certain entities, among others,” a government official was quoted as saying.

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The government is planning to widen the taxpayer base by 10 per cent to 86 million in the FY24.

High-value spendings were cast under the scrutiny of Income Tax department when the demonetisation took place in 2016. The department identified those who made several high-value transactions during the year after the demontisation took place in 2017-18 but did not file their tax returns.

The CBDT is going to review a draft of the taxation document submitted to it this week for approval, following which the plan is likely to be effective from this month, the report said.

The idea behind the new taxation plan is to have a verification process to ensure that the specific financial transactions that are to be reported are in line with the tax provisions.