Unveiling hidden black money, IT Dept detects undisclosed income worth Rs. 125 Cr under FATCA

New Delhi, August 3: Vacuuming out the hidden black money, the Income Tax Department is working in full swing to perceive the illegal money transaction. In a new attempt to shun the illegal practice, the Income Tax Department (IT) under the Foreign Account Compliance Act (FATCA) has detected undisclosed income worth Rs. 125 Crore.

The Directorate General of Intelligence and Criminal Investigation and Department of Income Tax detected this undisclosed income under post verification of around 9000 cases. The IT Department has acclaimed penalties under Section 43 of the Black Money Act in over 700 cases. Assessing Officers have also been advised to impose penalty and prosecution under section 49 & 51 of the Black Money Act.

The IT Dept informed that there had been a sharp increase of the undisclosed amount of Rs. 125 Crore as earlier on first exchange of information of the calendar year 2014 with the detection of undisclosed income of only Rs. 27 Crore. In this preview, the department implied an imposition of the penalty of Rs. 1 lakh in 100 cases.

Complying to the 9000 cases the department has found more than 1100 incomplete or foreign addresses. The IT department further elaborated that incomplete address meant that most of the information pertains to individual persons employed with multinational companies, who are very mobile and are on routine foreign assignments.

Due to this they mostly stay in rented apartments for short duration and thus their addresses keep changing. Under FATCA income tax department received data for the calendar year 2016 from 39 countries covering nearly 1.2 lakh persons. In almost 61 thousand cases Indian address was not available. Out of 1.2 lakh persons, Pan is available only in 34 thousand cases.

The USA enacted law FATCA in 2010 with the objective of tackling tax evasion through obtaining information is respect of offshore financial accounts maintained by USA residents and citizens. The provisions of FATCA essentially provide for 30 percent withholding tax on US source payments made to Foreign Institutions unless they enter into an agreement with the Internal Revenue Service to provide information about accounts held with them by USA persons or entities (firms/companies/trusts) controlled by USA persons.