With an aim to keep a track on  taxpayers’ transactions, relationships, social networking, the Income Tax (IT) department has launched 'Project Insight'. The much-awaited project will be fully operational from 1st April 2019 and is aimed at widening the tax base by catching tax evaders using technology. Reports inform that the Income-Tax department has created several functionalities as part of the project that will provide an overall profile of taxpayers. This would help to gauge their accountability and tax liability of people across the nation. Beware of Posting Pictures of Luxury Items on Facebook, Instagram: Under Project Insight, Income Tax Department to Cross-Check Taxpayer's Social Media Profiles With ITR. 

Starting April 1, the Project Insight will begin amassing all the virtual information not just from traditional sources like banks but also from social media sites. This would help the IT department to match the spending patterns of the taxpayers with income declarations, which in turn would help the authorities gauge the taxpayers accountability and tax liability.

Here's All You Need to Know About Project Insight:

  • The project, which will come into effect from 1st April 2019, will strengthen the non-intrusive information driven approach for improving tax compliance.

  • The project will use technology to allow the government collate databases of IT returns, IT forms, TDS/TCS statements and will track Financial Transactions received from financial institutions.

  • As part of Project Insight, a new Compliance Management Centralised Processing Centre (CMCPC) would also be set up for handling preliminary verification, campaign management, generation of bulk letters/notices and follow-up.

  • The Project Insight has been initiated by the income tax department for data mining, collection, collation and processing of such information for effective risk management with a view to widen and deepen the tax base.

  • Under the project, big data analytics will be used to match information from social media sites to deduce mismatches between spending pattern and income declaration.

  • The Income Tax department will analyse mismatches in income declarations and spending patterns to trace tax evasions and black money, an official said.

  • The government has also made linking of PAN with Aadhaar mandatory to get a 360-degree view of a person’s income and assets.

  • In 2016, the IT-department had signed a pact with L&T Infotech for implementation of Project Insight.

The 'Project Insight' will help the IT department to monitor high value transactions and curb the circulation of black money. This is part of the steps the government has taken to unearth and tax undeclared or illegal wealth.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 29, 2019 11:57 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).