Income Tax Department summons to people with irregular transactions

New Delhi: Amid coronavirus induced lockdown, the central government extended several important deadlines related to financial activities in order to provide relief to people. Among this one was filing an income tax return (ITR).  The Income Tax Department (IT Department) not only extended the deadlines of ITR but also prohibited the action in the tax evasion cases or suspicious transactions through bank accounts. It did not send any notices. However, since the lockdown has been relaxed, the Income Tax Department has become active again. It is now sending summons to people and taking action against them who have adopted all the tricks for tax evasion.

The Income Tax Department issued summons to a large number of people in tax evasion cases in September 2020.  The task of the Income Tax Department of sending summons to people for inappropriate deposits in bank accounts during demonetization is yet pending.  It is resuming its work now. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation on 8 November 2016. Under this, the old 1,000 and 500 notes were scrapped. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had prohibited sending summons to people during the lockdown; now this restriction has been lifted after relaxation of lockdown.

On September 18, the Income Tax authorities were told by the CBDT that they can resume action against the suspects.  It is clear that the Income Tax Department will send notice to every person, whose account has been deposited after demonetization. These notices are being sent on the basis of some suspended transaction reports. The department is sending notices under Section-148 of the Income Tax Act for irregularities found in the data for 6 years.

Until the outbreak of the coronavirus, people were being issued direct notices in cases of financial irregularities. Now a soft copy of the notice is being sent to the suspects. This work is being done through the Income Tax Business Application Portal (ITBA Portal). In view of the Corona crisis, taxpayers are being exempted from appearing in the department office. It is not necessary to be present in the department office for action. The suspect is being sent notice through email.+