As part of the new ‘Project Insight’, introduced by the Government to unearth undeclared income or illegal wealth and nab tax evaders, the income tax department may access the information of evaders from their Facebook and Instagram accounts to identify mismatches between spending patterns and income declaration, ET reported.
Recently, the introduced ‘Project Insight’ to promote voluntary compliance and deter non-compliance, impart confidence that all eligible persons pay appropriate tax; and to promote a fair and judicious tax administration.
The information regarding international trips, new cars, houses on social media, used by taxpayers to flaunt their purchases and social status, may now be used by the I-T department to ascertain the status of a person vis-à-vis the income reported in the income-tax return (ITR).
It will further enable the I-T department to collate databases received through different filings/ reporting made with it in ITRs, withholding tax returns and statements of financial transactions and build a profile of any person. Verification can be conducted through the portal on the cases generated based on profiles of individuals. This non-intrusive tool would be used to identify tax evaders without resorting to traditional intrusive methods like search and seizure.
A reporting portal would also be launched to ensure that compliance by third-party entities like banks and other financial institutions is timely and accurate.
The portal will contain exhaustive information with an integrated system for managing such information in an effective manner. It will not only contain the master file and details of movable and immovable property of the taxpayer, but also an intelligent hub, which will provide filtered information to identify non-compliant taxpayers. It will also provide revenue related details such as gross and net collection, refund, top taxpayers and tax base.
With 360-degree profiling, the I-T department would be able to access tax collection, tax base, taxpayers’ compliance, TDS and third-party reporting. Details such as master profile, asset details, ITR status, social networking, and the relationship would also help to create a geographic information system which would identify the specific jurisdiction requiring focus.
