JOIN USTax notice leaves many baffled
Several people have received emails from the income tax department, saying their high-value transactions are not reflected in their returns.
The deadline to revise income tax returns for 2020-21 was March 31. The email asks assessees to take a relook at what they have filed.
The notice has stumped many and left them wondering where they might have erred in filing their returns. Some assessees, who had actually hidden big-ticket transactions, are busy making amends.
Harsh Singh, a working professional, who got this notice, says interest on his fixed deposits, which he has already declared, are being seen as high-value transactions. “This seems like a faulty program which randomly picks up names for sending notices,” he says.
Sudharshan H, a builder, was surprised to get this notice. “I have now approached my chartered accountant to see if I have made a mistake somewhere. The IT department has sent us all into a tizzy with its new ways,” he says.
Clients receiving such notices are the talking point in many chartered accountants’ WhatsApp groups. A senior chartered accountant says the notices could have gone to genuine and false ones. “The IT department is upgrading its services. They should have first tried a dry run before shooting off this mail indiscriminately,” he says.
Philip Cherian, chartered accountant, says, “This cannot be considered a random message because the IT department sends it only to those with PAN numbers showing high-value transactions. This new system gives us a chance to correct our mistakes."
Travel, purchases tracked
The income tax department says it is busy with what it calls ‘Project Insight.’
“This Rs 1,000-crore project is a 360 degree profiling of a person taking into account foreign travel, high value purchases, and high cash withdrawals and deposits,” a senior tax official told Metrolife.
The data is collected from sub-registrar offices, banks and travel agencies and analysed before the mail is sent out, he says. “Earlier, TDS was applicable only to salaries, but it is now applicable to land transactions (1 per cent) and bank interest payments as well,” he says.‘Project Insight’ expands every year for gradual evolution of data collection, he says.
The Income Tax Transaction Analysis Centre (INTRAC) leverages data analytics for tax collection. “This new platform is being used to identify high risk non-filers,” the official says.
Another campaign under the Compliance Management Centralized Processing Centre (CMCPC) keeps a track of emails, texts, reminders, outbound calls and letters to support voluntary compliance with human intervention, he says.