Early Times Report
Jammu, Mar 28: Continuing the campaign to identify income tax evaders government employees, authorities have singled out some erring employees who claimed income tax returns by claiming to donate 50 percent of their salaries to political parties.
According to a circular issued by Mahesh Dass, Director Finance and Treasuries, some employees have claimed income return by claiming to donate 50 percent of their salaries as a donation to political parties.
“Various employees have claimed the refunds of Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) made by their respective DDOs, either substantially or fully. It has also been noticed that some employees have claimed to have paid as much as 50% of their salaries as a donation to political parties and claimed deductions under Section 80GGC of the Income Tax Act besides claiming other deductions, leaving hardly any balance out of their salary for meeting household expenses”, the circular reads.
“In order to ease the compliance for taxpayers, the Income Tax Department does not ask them to upload documents evidencing the deductions under various sections of the Act, as the department trusts the taxpayer and the Centre Processing Unit (CPU) process the return of income and issue refunds without asking any questions/ details”, the circular further reads.
“Returns so filed by the taxpayers are analyzed subsequently, by the Director General of Income Tax (Systems), and the cases of fraudulent claims / bogus refunds are selected for scrutiny, and in that eventuality, the taxpayer has to pay a heavy price that includes a levy of tax and penalty upto 200% for making fraudulent claims”, the circular reads. |
