Under the Income Tax Act there are various provisions which empower the
Tax Authorities to collect information for the purpose of assessment
proceedings under this Act.
These powers are given in Section 131, Section 132 , Section 133, Section
133A, Section 133B, Section 134 and Section 135 etc .
Collection of information under these sections may be for a particular Assessee
or related to any assessment proceeding but I am not going to discuss that ‘when
can these powers be exercised by the Authority and how ? ‘ Instead of
discussing when & how , I would like to discuss that what type of information is collected or which type of
transactions are being watched by the Department.
Information is collected either directly from the assesse through
furnishing of certain data in ITR or indirectly through certain
agency/department (like banks, Registrar etc) which are transacting with such
data or having control over such data.
ITR -1, ITR-2, ITR-3, ITR-4 require the assessee to furnish following
information:-
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Sl. No.
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Heading
|
Nature
of transactions
|
|
1.
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Cash deposit
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Cash deposits aggregating to ten lakh rupees or more in year in any savings account by you maintained in a banking company to which the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 (10 of 1949), applied (including any bank or banking institution referred to in section 51 of that Act)
|
|
2.
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Payment through Credit Card
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Payment made by you against bills raised in respect of a credit card aggregating to
two lakh rupees or more in a year.
|
|
3.
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Mutual fund
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Payment made by you of an amount of two lakh rupees or more for purchase of units of Mutual fund.
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4.
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Bonds/ debenture
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Payment made by you of an amount
of
five lakh rupees or more
for acquiring bonds or debentures issued by a company or institution.
|
|
5.
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Investment in Shares
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Payment made by you of an amount of one lakh rupes or more for acquiring shares issued by a
company.
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6.
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Investment in Property
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Purchase by you of any immovable property valued at thirty lakh rupees or more.
|
|
7.
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Sale of property
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Sale by you of any immovable property valued at thirty lakh rupees or more.
|
|
8.
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investment
in RBI bonds
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Payment made by you of an amount of five lakh rupees or more in a year for investment in bonds issued by Reserve Bank of
India.
|
It is quite clear from the above table that Department is keeping a watch eye on
your high value transactions and it help the department to identify the
assessee for scrutiny.
If some assesses think that by not furnishing these information
in ITR can escape the liability, they are very much wrong and at risk of
scrutiny also because these information has been cross linked to other side of the information collection
system i.e. annual Information Return (AIR). Same information can reach to the
department from the Banks, RBI, Registrar or sub-registrar recording the
sale/purchase of Immovable property because these agencies have been
compulsorily required to furnish such information by filing Annual Information
return.
Thus be ready before filing your ITR, if you have entered or transacted
with such type of any transaction in the financial year, don’t forget to disclose such information
in your ITR and disclose full & complete information.
Apartment from the disclosure he should keep & maintain all relevant
papers in his custody to prove his information disclosed.
Apart from the above, I would like to suggest on the following points:-
(1) Gather full information of the TDS deducted ( Form-16 or Form-16A) on payment you have
received in the Financial year and match it with your Income disclosed in ITR,
(2) In case of situation where TDS deducted, it happens
sometime that assessee does not file ITR assuming that tax has already been
deducted and there is no need to file ITR but it is not true. Deduction of tax
(TDS) is responsibility of the person who is making payment but filing of
return (ITR) is the responsibility of the person who is earning income. Thus ITR
must be filed if income exceeds the maximum limit of income not taxable.
(3) All income (Taxable & Non-taxable i.e. exempted)
must be disclosed in ITR, it has been noticed so many times assessee does not
show some income because it is exempt.