Those who have deposited more than Rs 10 lakh in their bank accounts, not commensurate with their income tax returns, will have to pay tax and a 200 per cent penalty on the amount as laid out in the Income Tax Act, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia tweeted on Wednesday.
“If cash amount of above Rs.10 lakh is deposited in a bank A/C, not matching with declared income, same will be treated as tax evasion,” the Finance Ministry tweeted, attributing it to Mr Adhia. “In such case, tax amount plus a penalty of 200 per cent of the tax payable would be levied as per Section 270(A) of the Income Tax Act. This is in keeping with the provisions of Section 270(A), which deals with the penalty for under reporting and misreporting of income.
“… where under-reported income is in consequence of any misreporting thereof by any person, the penalty referred… shall be equal to two hundred per cent of the amount of tax payable on under-reported income Section 270(A).”
The Finance Ministry will be getting reports of all cash deposited during the November 10 to December 30 window above the threshold of Rs 2.5 lakh in each account, the tweets added, which will be matched against the income tax returns linked to that account.
“Income Tax department would do matching of this with income returns filled by the depositors. And suitable action may follow,” another tweet added. “A person buying jewellery has to give his PAN number; Instructions being issued to field authorities to check it with all jewellers.”
“Action to be taken against those jewellers who fail to take PAN numbers from buyers to ensure this requirement is not compromised. Cash deposits of jewellers would be scrutinised against the sales made to check whether they have taken PAN nos. of buyers or not,” it added.
