Drive on voluntary tax compliance from Monday

The Income-tax Department will start an 11-day e-campaign for voluntary tax compliance starting from Monday aimed at such assessees who are either non-filers or have discrepancies in their tax returns for the financial year 2018-19.

The objective of the e-campaign is to facilitate taxpayers to validate their returns or financial transaction information available with the I-T department, online, and promote voluntary compliance so that they do not get into notice and scrutiny process, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a statement on Saturday.

The statement said that data analysis has identified certain taxpayers with high value transactions who have not filed returns for assessment year 2019-20 (relevant to financial year 2018-19). The last date for filing as well as revising the income-tax returns for financial year 2018-19 is July 31, 2020.

Under the e-campaign, the department will send emails and SMSes to identified taxpayers to verify their financial transactions that taxmen have received from various sources, the statement said.

“In addition to the non-filers, another set of return filers have also been identified wherein the high value transactions does not appear to be in line with their income-tax return,” it said.

CBDT said under the e-campaign the taxpayers will be able to access details of their high value transaction related information on the designated portal. “There would be no need to visit any Income-Tax office, as the response has to be submitted online,” it said.

The taxpayer must avail the opportunity to participate in the e-campaign for their own ease and benefit, CBDT said.

The income-tax department is also equipped with information related to Goods and Services Tax (GST), exports, imports, and transactions in securities, derivatives, commodities, mutual funds under information triangulation set up and data analytics, the statement said.