 "Verifying genuineness of farm income over Rs 1 crore: Govt")
"The Income Tax Department is verifying the genuineness of agricultural income in cases where taxpayers have reported agricultural income of more than Rs 1 crore in their income tax returns for assessment years 2007-08 to 2015-16 to check whether the tax-payer has made a genuine declaration or there are any data errors," Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.
The assessing officers are also directed to give feedback about the genuineness of claims on agricultural income where the scrutiny has been completed, he said.
In cases where assessment proceedings are pending, the assessing officers have been directed to thoroughly verify the claims of agricultural income made by taxpayers, Gangwar said.
He was replying to a question whether the government is gathering data on agricultural income through spot verification.
When asked if the government was working on bringing farm income under the tax net, he said there are no such proposals to bring agricultural income under the tax net.
On the Income Disclosure Scheme 2016, Gangwar said the main goal is to bring unaccounted income to tax and not for widening the tax base or adding new taxpayers.
However, he said the government has taken steps like Non-Filer Monitoring System that identifies persons or entities who do high-value transactions but don't file returns and has widened the mechanism to collect and verify financial information.
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"Besides, various legislative measures have bee taken to increase the tax base. These include expansion of the scope of Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) and Tax Collection at Source (TCS) by bringing more and more taxable transactions within their ambit," Gangwar said.
Moreover, it is now mandatory to quote permanent account number (PAN) for all transactions over Rs 2 lakh as well as for specific transactions in property dealings, shares, bonds, insurance, foreign travel and demand account, he said.
In reply to a question, if agricultural income above a certain threshold will be taxed, he said," No such proposal to bring agricultural income under the tax net is being considered by the government."
Asked if Income Tax, Excise and Customs departments were the biggest litigants before the counts and Government will direct them to desist from appealing against verdicts of tribunals and high courts, Gangwar said:" More than 15,800 appeals have been withdrawn by the Income Tax Departments till November 2016."
Moreover, more than 400 appeals have been withdrawn from high courts on issues which have been settled in favour of taxpayers, the minister said.
"Further, the filing of appeal has also been restricted only to cases which have the required merits and which have tax effect exceeding the revised monetary thresholds." Gangwar also informed the house that based upon intelligence input, the Government has taken necessary action in certain cases apparently linked to Bahamas Paper leaks.