E-Paper
I-T for 360 degree profiling of taxpayers
The next time you book a five-star place for a wedding function, be sure the payment made for it reflects in the subsequent income tax return filed by you. If you fail to do that there are all the chances that tax officials would come knocking at your door. This is because the income tax department has started “360 degree profiling” of big taxpayers, reports Manish Pachouly.
The next time you book a five-star place for a wedding function, be sure the payment made for it reflects in the subsequent income tax return filed by you. If you fail to do that there are all the chances that tax officials would come knocking at your door.
This is because the income tax department has started “360 degree profiling” of big taxpayers. Under this system all the information of big assessees, especially income and expenditure, would be kept in one folder and would be available to selected tax officials just with a mouse click.
The system has already started in Delhi from Friday and is on trial basis in Mumbai where it would start soon.
S S N Moorthy, chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes confirmed that such a system has started and would run at three to four stations in the country including Mumbai. He refused to give further information.
However, sources in the I-T department said the system would store every detail of the big taxpayers including house and car purchases, foreign trips, booking expensive marriage halls or grounds and credit card payments. It would also have the details of the taxpayers’ financial deals in the country and abroad as well as their various sources of income. The system would also have minute details like taxpayers’ family tree, their assets, liabilities, if they were investigated by any other agency and if any of them were involved in money laundering activities.
“All these information would be collated and linked to the assessees permanent account number (PAN),” said a senior official requesting anonymity.
Moreover, the ‘smart’ assessees who sometimes try to ditch the department by making variations in their names while going for big expenditures could also be easily caught.
