JOIN USShare details of property deals online, I-T dept tells State
In a bid to widen the tax base and check tax evasion, the Income Tax department has asked the State government to provide details on sale and purchase of immovable assets online.
The Directorate General of Income Tax (Intelligence and Criminal Investigation) is in talks with the state government to share information online to avoid delays.
The revenue department is said to have promised to make necessary changes in the ‘Kaveri’ (Karnataka Valuation and E-Registration) software to integrate with the I-T department’s software to share information at the time of registration. The DGIT (I and CI) was created in 2011 to widen the tax base.
A present, J-slips are sent to the tahsildar’s office after every transaction of agriculture land. J-slips record the sale transaction of agriculture land at all sub-registrars’ offices and have details of the new owner.
This is done through an integration of Kaveri and Bhoomi softwares. Bhoomi is the online delivery and management of land records.
At a recent interaction with officials of the revenue department, Director of Income Tax (I and CI) R Ravichandran stressed on the need to share information on time.
At present, the state government provides Annual Information Returns (AIR) for “high value transactions” through sub-registrar offices according to Rule 114e of the Income Tax Act.
They have to be sent on or before August 31, that is within five months of the closure of the financial year.
The I-T department uses AIRs to compare them with Income Tax Returns (ITRs) filed by individuals. Cases are taken up for scrutiny in case of discrepancies.
Information not available
The information, however, is not strictly shared because of additional paperwork involved. Though there has been a steady increase in compliance from 55 percent in 2005-06 to 86 percent in 2014-15, information is not available on time.
From April 2015, sub-registrars have been made duty bound to provide all information on all property transactions under section 285BA of the Income Tax Act.
“The registrar or sub-registrar appointed should furnish information on purchase or sale of immovable property valued at Rs 30 lakh or more,’’ says the I-T Act.
In Bengaluru alone, the number of property documents registered is close to 3.3 lakh a year while in Karnataka, the total transactions are close to 18 lakh a year.
Nearly 60 percent of property transactions are above Rs 30 lakh in Bengaluru because of a steep increase in guidance value in recent years.
The situation is no different in big cities like Mangaluru, Mysuru, Hubballi, Belagavi and in Tumakuru, Bengaluru rural and Ramanagaram, where the land value has increased drastically because of their proximity to Bengaluru.
The department has also sought similar information from the sale and purchase of motor vehicles from RTOs.
No funds, staff
Sources in the revenue department said they have not been sanctioned funds to generate information in the format specified by the I-T department.
The department also doesn’t have staff to compute the information and has been asked by the I-T department to avail services of Karvy, a private company.