Filing Wrong ITRs? It Can Land You in Trouble, Income Tax Department Warns

The Income Tax Department on Wednesday cautioned salaried taxpayers not to under-report their income or inflate deductions and exemptions while filing tax returns, warning that wrong claims would be treated as cases of tax evasion. It comes on the back of the Department stumbling upon evidence of such malpractices in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Ludhiana. According to reports, in a single-page advisory issued on Wednesday, the department said such attempts aided and abetted by unscrupulous intermediaries have "been noted with concern".

Such offences are punishable under various penal and prosecution provisions of the Income Tax Act, it said. "Taxpayers are, therefore, strictly advised not to fall prey to false promises or mis-advice by unscrupulous intermediaries and submit wrong claims in their Income Tax Returns (ITRs), which would be treated as cases of tax evasion.In the cases of such wrong claims by government or Public Sector Undertaking employees, reference would be made to the concerned vigilance division for action under conduct rules," the advisory said. The processing of ITRs by Centralized Processing Centre-Bengaluru is done in an automated rule-based manner with no human interface with the taxpayer.

As per reports, the department may examine and verify the details submitted by taxpayers in their ITR, subsequent to processing of returns in CPC. If the Department notices any fraudulent claims in the returns, such tax payers may be punishable under various provisions of the Income Tax Act. It may also delay issuance of refunds in such cases.

(With inputs from IANS)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 19, 2018 09:56 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).