Onus on suspected offenders to prove overseas funds legal:CBDT

The proposed law on black money will put the onus on the suspected offender to prove the legitimacy of overseas assets, as the Tax Department will begin prosecution on the basis of a "rebuttable presumption", a top tax official said today.
"If you will not disclose the account to us, one normal presumption would be if you have a legitimate account, why will you not disclose to us... We are going to build in a rebuttable presumption (in the new law)," Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairperson Anita Kapur told reporters here.
A rebuttable presumption is a conclusion to a fact in presence of certain evidences and can be overturned only if an evidence on the contrary is provided to.

The new comprehensive law, which is likely to come in Parliament during the current session, is being put in place to check the menace of Indians stashing illicit wealth in foreign countries such as Switzerland.
"I don't foresee any reason if you have legitimate assets, then why you wouldn't disclose that to us," Kapur said, while adding that the principle of natural justice would prevail and offenders would get an opportunity to explain.
Under the proposed law, concealment of income and assets and evasion of tax in relation to foreign assets will be prosecutable with rigorous imprisonment of up to 10 years. Further, the offence will be made non-compoundable and the offenders will not be permitted to approach the Settlement Commission.

"We do recognise and feel there are principles of natural justice to be followed. Everybody will be given an opportunity and it is not the case that we are abandoning principles of natural justice," Kapur said.
Presenting his first full-year budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said last week that the first and foremost pillar of his tax proposals was to enact a new law to effectively deal with the problem of black money.
The CBDT Chief further said that that tightening of asset confiscation provisions under the Benami Transaction Prohibition Law and implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will also help curb generation of black money within the country.