I-T crackdown: Brokers, speculators go under scanner for false exchanges

Conducts searches at over 150 places linked to brokers, investors for alleged tax evasion

Countless merchants and speculators are under the scanner of the annual assessment (I-T) office for supposedly executing fake exchanges illiquid investment opportunities.

As per sources, I-T authorities on Wednesday directed overviews and search tasks at around 150 areas the nation over, including Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata. “We have propelled a test in the issue following data from the market controller about anomalies in the value subordinate portion,” said an assessment official conscious of the improvement. The authority included this was a crisp test dependent on the investigation of certain subordinate agreements both on the BSE and the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

The test covers exchanges of the most recent five years, beginning 2014, and will proceed for a couple of more days, sources said.  The I-T office associates the inclusion with more than 20,000 substances, including exchanging individuals and financial specialists, in the issue, which could have prompted tax avoidance of about Rs 80,000 crore.

Early this year, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) exacted an all out punishment of over Rs 55 lakh on nine substances for fake exchanging illiquid investment opportunities of the BSE. The activity had come after the controller led an examination concerning the exchanging action the section from April 2014 to September 2015, subsequent to watching huge scale inversion of exchanges….Read More

From Amitabh Bachchan to Vijay Mallya: 714 Indians named in Paradise Papers

India ranks 19th out of the 180 countries covered under the leaked data in terms of the number of names involved

 

A fresh, vast leak of financial records, dubbed the Paradise Papers, has shined the light on how global corporate giants and hedge funds allegedly skirted taxes and the apparently hidden wealth of prominent Indians. This cache of 13.4 million documents follows over a year after the release of the Panama papers and includes names of Indians such as Amitabh Bachchan, MoS Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha, and Vijay Mallya, among others, reported Indian Express. The paper has not suggested any illegality associated with the leaked names.

India ranks 19th out of the 180 countries covered under the leaked data in terms of the number of names involved, reported the Indian Express on Monday. Further, according to the report, 714 Indians find mention in the papers.

The leaked data, obtained by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, as was the case with the Panama Papers, and investigated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), originates from two firms – Bermuda's Appleby and Singapore's Asiaciti – as well as from 19 tax havens across the world.

ALSO READ :Queen Elizabeth to Facebook: Paradise Papers expose tax haven secrets of ultra-wealthy

In fact, the national daily highlights that an Indian company, the Nand Lal Khemka-founded Sun Group, was found to be Appleby’s second-largest client internationally with 118 separate offshore entities.

Involvement of Indian scam-tainted firms

The papers, according to the report, also reveal that Appleby's Indian clients included firms that are under the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) scanner in relation to various cases. Firms involved in the Sun-TV-Aircel-Maxis case, Essar-Loop 2G case, SNC-Lavalin Kerala hydroelectric scandal (which involved the now-acquitted Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan), and the Rajasthan ambulance scam under the CBI.....read more<<<<

Auditors' to disclose property related transactions above Rs 20,000 to I-T

The move will increase transparency in financial dealings and help check tax evasion

Auditors will now have to disclose details of transactions exceeding Rs 20,000 in connection with immovable property in reports, which they file with the Income Tax (I-T) authorities on behalf of their clients.(Economic news) 

Under the Income Tax Act, professionals earning gross receipts of more than Rs 50 lakh and companies with a turnover of Rs one crore and above are required to get their accounts audited. The turnover limit for companies has been increased to Rs two crore from Assessment year 2018-19.

So far, auditors in their report had to mention details of loans, and repayment exceeding Rs 20,000 in the tax audit report filed along with Income Tax returns. Henceforth, all transactions exceeding Rs 20,000 relating to immovable property will have to be mentioned in a specified format in the report.

The move will increase transparency in financial dealings and help check tax evasion.

As per the notification by the Income tax department, auditors will have to furnish details of transactions regarding "each specified sum" exceeding Rs 20,000 from financial year 2016- 17. These would include money paid or received with regard to immovable property.

The auditor report will also have to specify details of the mode of payments whether account payee or bearer cheque, or through electronic system.

Through the notification, the tax department has revised the form 3CD for tax audit report under section 44AB of Income Tax Act.

The amended rules will come into effect from July 19, 2017 and will apply for assessment year 2017-18 for which the returns would be filed in the coming months.

Nangia & Co Associate Director Shalu Kedia said the notification mandates "enhanced reporting" as disclosure now needs to be given with bifurcation into -- all transactions, cheque, bank draft transactions, and cheque and bank draft transactions which are not account payee.

Before amendment, the disclosure requirement was to report whether or not transactions are through account payee cheque or bank draft, she said.

"By doing this, the tax department has ensured greater transparency in modes of transaction," Kedia said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)