Black Money: Award up to Rs.15 lakh for Information against Tax Evaders

The Black Money Menace in India

Black money is a known as money earned from the market by various means for which none of the relevant taxes have not been paid. As per the unofficial reports and claims by some experts, the black money gone out of India would be more than US $12 trillion and deposited in Swiss banks. The government of India is trying to bring the black money back to India and book the defaulters but the effort is so complex due to various legalities. That is why Government has also a scheme in place to reward people for sharing information against Tax Evaders

The Measures and Guidelines by the Income Tax Department to Provide Information against Tax Evaders

The Income Tax department of India has announced new guidelines to reward the informers who provide reliable information about the tax evaders. Such defaults include owing huge amount to the government in terms of TDS and other assessment categories.

Guidelines and Cap on the Reward- 

The income tax department has recently announced its’ new guidelines to all the concerned offices in the country to reward those who provide trustworthy information against the Income Tax defaulters. Such informers will be rewarded 10% of the total tax amount recovered from such defaulters with a cap of Rs.15 lakh.

Provision to Increase the Reward Limit to informers against Tax Evaders

Though the cap has been fixed by the department, certain provisions have been made to provide increased reward on special cases on approval from the Central board of Direct Taxes. Considering the need to protect the identity of the informant, the department has decided to allot unique numbers for communication purposes. In certain cases disclosure of the identity of the informer will be necessary in cases where law requires doing so. No speculative inputs will be entertained by the income tax department for consideration.

Coverage of Assesses

The guidelines clarifies that the information provided on untraceable assesses or who have declared inadequate assets to pay unpaid taxes will be covered under the new scheme. This decision has been taken after high-level considerations at with various responsible officials including the special investigation Team in tracking black money.

The guidelines also states that any default of TDS or self assessment tax for over 6 (six) months and which the income tax department has openly confirmed the default will be covered under the new scheme.

As part of bringing awareness among the public about the income tax defaulters, the department has started to perform “naming and shaming” major tax defaulters in the country by announcing their names, addresses and the due amounts in the daily newspapers.

Since the announcement of the new guidelines, the department has already announced the names of about more than 50 major defaulters who have income tax dues to the government of more than 2,000 crores.

The Income tax department officials are confident to act on more such income tax defaulters within and outside the country and bring-in more revenue to the treasury.

Related Read-Penalties for Tax Evasion under Income Tax Act