The Income Tax Department has cautioned taxpayers on mismatch between specific financial transactions and tax paid. It has advised taxpayers to calculate their tax properly and pay the balance, if any, as advance tax, whose last instalment is due on March 15.

According to a statement by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT(, the Department has received certain information on specific financial transactions undertaken by persons/entities during Financial Year(2023-24 (FY24). On the basis of analysis of the taxes paid so far during the current financial year, the Department has identified such persons/entities where payment of taxes for FY24 (Assessment Year 2024-25) is not commensurate with the financial transactions made by the persons/entities concerned.

“As a part of taxpayer service initiative, the Department is undertaking an e-campaign, which aims to intimate such persons/entities of significant financial transactions, through email (marked as Advance Tax e-Campaign-Significant Transactions for A.Y. 2024-25) and SMS, urging them to compute their advance tax liability correctly and deposit the due advance tax on or before March 15, 2024,” the department said.

Under Rule 114E, there are 13 types of specified financial transactions and details are reported by institutions such as banks, registrars, stock exchanges etc. to the Income Tax Department. These transactions include payment of ₹ 10 lakh or more made in cash for purchase of bank drafts or pay orders, payment of ₹ 10 lakhs or more during the financial year for purchase of pre-paid instruments issued by , cash deposits or cash withdrawals (including through bearer’s cheque) aggregating to ₹ 50 lakhs or more in or from one or more current account, cash deposits aggregating to ₹10 lakhs or more in a financial year, in one or more accounts (other than a current account and time deposit) of a person, beside oters.

All these information is reflected in the Annual Information Statement (AIS) module and is available to the persons/entities for viewing. Accordingly, an individual can see whether applicable tax paid or not. If not, he is required to calculate and pay. For viewing the details of significant transactions, the persons/entities can login to their e-filing account (if already created) and go to the Compliance Portal. On this portal, e-Campaign tab can be accessed to view significant transactions. The Department said the e campaign aims towards easing compliance for taxpayers and reinforce its commitment towards enhancing taxpayer services.

Collection through direct taxes have been better during current fiscal. Improved compliance and high growth in Personal Income Tax (PIT) propelled net direct tax collection to grow over 20 per cent during April 1 and February 20 of 2023-24. On February 1, the Union Budget had raised the estimate for direct tax collection to ₹19.45 lakh crore from ₹18.23 lakh crore.

According to the Department, Direct Tax collection stood at ₹15.60 lakh crore, which is 20.25 per cent higher than the net collections of ₹12.97 lakh crore in the corresponding period last year. This collection is over 80 per cent of the total Revised Estimates of Direct Taxes for FY 2023-24. The Department expects that, during the remaining 40 days of the current fiscal, covering the remaining proportion of the estimate will not be difficult.

While the net growth of Corporate Income Tax collection was over 13.5 per cent, Personal Income Tax collection (net) surged by over 27 per cent. The net number is calculated after deducting refunds from gross collections. “Refunds amounting to ₹2.77 lakh crore have been issued during April 1 and February 10,” the Department said.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW