Income Tax Dept sent 1 lakh notices for underreporting, non-filing of returns, says Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the Income Tax Department has sent about one lakh notices to individuals for non-filing of returns or understating incomes in the past years.

“This year we heard a lot of people saying notices have come to us and what's happening? Why are so many notices being issued? I just want to tell you that based on these two categories, where information is available, that is more than what you have filed. There are reasons to believe that the income has been understated or were there non-filers, information is that they should have been filers,” said Sitharaman, addressing the 164th Income Tax Day on Monday.

“About one lakh notices were sent,” Sitharaman said, adding that the notices are expected to be cleared by the end of this fiscal 2023-24. Under income tax law, officers can reopen past assessments of up to six years.

The Minister said the notices were not just thoughtlessly sent and noted she was assured by the Chairman CBDT, Nitin Gupta, that by March 2024, the entire one lakh notices will be cleared.

The Minister said that no tax assessee is going to face reopening of cases after 6 years, which was earlier 10 years, thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "This change was brought to benefit tax assessee,” she said. During her address, Sitharaman also lauded the Income Tax department for having increased the revenue without imposing additional taxes upon citizens.

“In the last 3-4 years tax rate did not grow up but revenue is growing up and revenue expectations are met. The government has not increased tax rates, but revenue is increasing, efficiency has been improved and the economy is becoming more and more formalized,” she added.

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