Tax Department To Inform Vigilance Department If Employees Under-Report Income

Any wrong reporting by a PSU employee would be reported to the vigilance division

The Income Tax (I-T) Department on Wednesday alerted salaried taxpayers not to under-report their income or inflate deductions and exemptions while filing tax returns, warning that wrong claims would be treated as cases of tax evasion. In the advisory issued on Wednesday, the tax department said that such attempts facilitated by unscrupulous intermediaries have "been noted with concern".

Income Tax (I-T) Department Issues Advisory. Five Things To Know

1. Under-reporting of income is punishable under various penal and prosecution provisions of the Income Tax Act, it said.

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2. The tax department alerted the tax payers that they should not fall prey to any ill advise given by an expert . "Taxpayers are strictly advised not to fall prey to false promises or mis-advice by unscrupulous intermediaries and submit wrong claims in their Income Tax Returns (ITRs), which would be treated as cases of tax evasion," said the advisory.

3. The income tax (I-T) department made it clear that any wrong reporting by a public sector employee would be reported to the concerned vigilance division for action. "In the cases of such wrong claims by government or Public Sector Undertaking employees, reference would be made to the concerned vigilance division for action under conduct rules," the advisory said.

4. The department advisory was not meant only for the tax payers but also for the intermediaries who tend to facilitate the filing of income tax. The department said that it may also prosecute the intermediaries and abettors and may refer such cases to other law enforcement agencies for appropriate action.

5. The department made it clear that the processing of income tax returns (ITRs) by Centralized Processing Centre (Bengaluru) is done in an automated rule-based manner with no human interface with the taxpayer.

"The Income Tax Department has an extensive risk analysis system aimed at identifying persons who are non-compliant and aim to subvert the trust based system envisioned while processing of ITRs at CPC Bangalore.

"In all such cases of high risk, the department may examine and verify the details submitted by taxpayers in their ITR, subsequent to processing of returns in CPC," the advisory said.