A number of salaried taxpayers have been issued notices since the start of the financial year by the income tax department, questioning the claims made in their returns. The taxman has initiated a drive probing the returns where unrealistic exemption claims were allegedly made by the taxpayers, said sources.
Huge amounts were also shown in the ‘other’ exemptions column in the tax returns. Even though the taxmen have been taking up such cases from time to time, a concerted effort has been initiated now, said sources. The volume of such claims probed during the drive has also initiated a thought process to make the returns process more foolproof, said sources.
The ‘others’ column covers a wide range of expenditure for which a salaried person can make a claim. These may not be specifically covered under any section in the returns format, said sources. The amounts claimed towards Mediclaim and education loans, specially by salaried assessees, are also under the scanner. The notices are for tax returns over and above those picked up for random scrutiny, said sources.
They added that cases of fake returns were found mainly among private sector employees. The notices have been issued asking individuals to revise their tax returns. Those time-barred from filing revised returns, may have to update returns in which simply the additional liability has to be paid up, said the source.
Sources say that despite all efforts such modes do not help in saving tax beyond a certain limit due to the limits fixed in the tax laws. Even as the amount saved may not be very big, considering the total collections, the drive has been initiated to spread a message that no fake claims can go unchallenged.
The taxpayers resort to such means hoping that their returns will not be picked up for scrutiny. Only a small portion of returns are taken up for scrutiny on random basis.
Source #TOI
