Any bank account suspected to have been ´misused´ for money laundering or shell company operations won´t be exempted from probe under ´Operation Clean Money´ despite having low deposits, the CBDT said on Tuesday.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the policymaking body of the department, issued specific guidelines to ascertain ifaparticular cash deposit is genuine or not and withaview to "maintain consistent approach during verification" under ´Operation Clean Money´ where 1.8 million people were contacted by the taxman.
"In case, there is information or apprehension/ suspicion thataparticular bank account(s) has been misused for money laundering, tax evasion, entry operations in shell companies, the monetary cutoff or cash balance based cut off prescribed in clauses above requiring noverification, shall not be applicable," it said.
The instructions earlier made it clear that in case of an individual (other than minors) not having any business income, "no further verification is required to be made of total cash deposit is up to ~2.5 lakh".
"Amounts above this cutoff may require verification to ascertain whether the same is explained or not," it said.
In case of people engaged in business or those required to maintain books of accounts, the CBDT instructions said, "No additional information is required to be submitted by the person under verification if total cash out of earlier income or saving is not more than the closing cash balance as on March 31, 2016 in the return for assessment year 201617." However, if any discrepancy in these records is found "further verification may be carried out" and suchaprocedure should also be followed for cash deposits claimed to be made out of receipts exempt from tax, like agricultural income, it said.
In case where the taxman suspectsacash amount that is withdrawn fromabank account, then instructions advised that the "Assessing Officer (AO) should takeabalanced view in analysing the time gap from the point of view of normal human behaviour and specific circumstances of the case" keeping in mind the date of demonetisation, i.e., November 8, 2016.
Aspecial relief has been ensured to those who were declarants under onetime domestic black money window that ended late last year. "If the person under verification has claimed that the cash deposit has been disclosed in Income Declaration Scheme (IDS), 2016 and if the same is found yo be correct, no further verification should be made," it said.
Verification under the said exercise will be kept "pending" for those who inform the taxman that they will disclose their black money under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Kalyan Yojna (PMGKY) that ends on March 31. "The verification should be closed on the basis of evidence of disclosure made under PMGKY," it said.
The CBDT asked on Tuesday the taxman to ensure there is no "threat, warning or show cause" notice to taxpayers contacted by it under ´Operation Clean Money´ that is aimed at checking black money postnote ban.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the policymaking body of the Income Tax department, brought out an eightpage instruction leaflet clearly mandating that no person under verification as part of the operation is required to attend the IToffice "personally under any circumstance and at any stage." "It should be ensured that the communications made online with the persons under verification should be in very polite language without containing any element of threat or warning.
No show cause of any kind should be given," it stated.
The department had sent SMSes and emails to 1.8 million people who made suspicious deposits of over ~5 lakh during the 50day demonetisation period as part of this operation and close to 0.6 million people have replied on the efiling portal and have acknowledged to have made such deposits by February 15. This exercise has been called ´Operation Clean Money´ by the CBDT.
These are the first set of official guidelines issued by the Board with regard to the execution and assessment of the data received under this operation after taxpayers and others had raised doubts about possible harrasment by the taxman.
The instructions earlier made it clear that in case of an individual (other than minors) not having any business income, "no further verification is required to be made of total cash deposit is up to ~2.5 lakh".
"Amounts above this cutoff may require verification to ascertain whether the same is explained or not," it said.
In case of people engaged in business or those required to maintain books of accounts, the CBDT instructions said, "No additional information is required to be submitted by the person under verification if total cash out of earlier income or saving is not more than the closing cash balance as on March 31, 2016 in the return for assessment year 201617." However, if any discrepancy in these records is found "further verification may be carried out" and suchaprocedure should also be followed for cash deposits claimed to be made out of receipts exempt from tax, like agricultural income, it said.
In case where the taxman suspectsacash amount that is withdrawn fromabank account, then instructions advised that the "Assessing Officer (AO) should takeabalanced view in analysing the time gap from the point of view of normal human behaviour and specific circumstances of the case" keeping in mind the date of demonetisation, i.e., November 8, 2016.
Aspecial relief has been ensured to those who were declarants under onetime domestic black money window that ended late last year. "If the person under verification has claimed that the cash deposit has been disclosed in Income Declaration Scheme (IDS), 2016 and if the same is found yo be correct, no further verification should be made," it said.
Verification under the said exercise will be kept "pending" for those who inform the taxman that they will disclose their black money under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Kalyan Yojna (PMGKY) that ends on March 31. "The verification should be closed on the basis of evidence of disclosure made under PMGKY," it said.
The CBDT asked on Tuesday the taxman to ensure there is no "threat, warning or show cause" notice to taxpayers contacted by it under ´Operation Clean Money´ that is aimed at checking black money postnote ban.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the policymaking body of the Income Tax department, brought out an eightpage instruction leaflet clearly mandating that no person under verification as part of the operation is required to attend the IToffice "personally under any circumstance and at any stage." "It should be ensured that the communications made online with the persons under verification should be in very polite language without containing any element of threat or warning.
No show cause of any kind should be given," it stated.
The department had sent SMSes and emails to 1.8 million people who made suspicious deposits of over ~5 lakh during the 50day demonetisation period as part of this operation and close to 0.6 million people have replied on the efiling portal and have acknowledged to have made such deposits by February 15. This exercise has been called ´Operation Clean Money´ by the CBDT.
These are the first set of official guidelines issued by the Board with regard to the execution and assessment of the data received under this operation after taxpayers and others had raised doubts about possible harrasment by the taxman.
Business Standard New Delhi,22th February 2017
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