New Delhi Mar 31 PTI The Income Tax Department has found alleged illegal business expenses of over Rs 800 crore Rs 60 crore unaccounted cash used to purchase land in Delhi and role of some shell companies after it raided Hero Motocorp and two other groups officials said on ThursdayThe raids were launched on March 23 and the countrys largest two-wheeler maker had then said it was extending full cooperation to the tax authorities who visited its offices in Delhi and nearby Gurugram apart from the residence of its chairman and CEO Pawan MunjalThe CBDT issued a statement saying the operation was carried out on a leading automobile manufacturer group along with a company operating chartered flights and a real estate group of Delhi-NCR covering more than 35 premisesIncriminating documents and digital evidence have been found and seized indicating that the expenses ostensibly shown to have been claimed towards business purposes are not fully supported by evidencesExpenditure aggregating to more than Rs 800 crore has been booked in the guise of purchase of services from a specific event management entity the policy-making body for the tax department saidThis entity it said has siphoned off the money by way of layeringSuch claims towards non-business purposes are inadmissible expenditure under the provisions of the Income-tax Act the CBDT saidIt was also found that 10 acres of farm land in Delhi was purchased through a few paper companies it saidIn such transactions unaccounted cash component of over Rs 60 crore was purportedly involvedThe ultimatereal beneficiary of the land deal is a prominent person of the automobile manufacturer groupThe intermediary who facilitated the said deal has admitted in his statement that major part of the sale consideration was paid in cash the statement saidThe officials said this action was carried out against Hero Motocorp and Pawan MunjalWhile a statement from the company on the CBDT statement is awaited it had said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday that it was a law-abiding corporate with robust internal financial controls and its financial statements are duly auditedIn the case of the real estate business entity the CBDT said several incriminating documents have been unearthed from the premises of persons involvedThese contain records of on-money cash transactions where cash was being received in lieu of sale of units in their various real estate projects across Delhi it saidIn the case of the company operating chartered flights the statement said evidence related to booking of bogus expenses and non-recognition of income totalling to over Rs 50 crore rotation of funds and suspicious loans through a dubious NBFC non banking financial company floated by a key person layering and re-routing of funds through paper companies and claiming bogus interest expenses etc were unearthedIt said undisclosed cash worth more than Rs 135 crore has been seized and jewellery over Rs 3 crore has been kept provisionally under restraint PTI NES MSS IJT

New Delhi Mar 30 PTI The Income Tax Department on Wednesday said non-linking of PAN with Aadhaar by March 31 would attract penalty of up to Rs 1000 but such PAN will remain functional for one more year till March 2023 for filing ITR claiming refunds and other I-T procedures The Central Board of Direct Taxes CBDT which is the apex decision making body on direct taxes has extended the deadline for linking Permanent Account Number PAN with Aadhaar many times and the last date now is March 31 2022 As per a circular issued by CBDT on Wednesday PAN not linked to Aadhaar would become inoperative after March 31 2023 Those taxpayers who link their PAN with biometric Aadhaar by June 30 2022 would be required to pay late fees of Rs 500 Beyond that the penalty would rise to Rs 1000 In order to mitigate the inconvenience to taxpayers as per notification dated March 29 2022 a window of opportunity has been provided to taxpayers up to March 31 2023 to intimate their Aadhaar to the prescribed authority for Aadhaar-PAN linking without facing repercussions the CBDT said adding such intimation would have to be accompanied by late fees However till 31st March 2023 the PAN of the assessees who have not intimated their Aadhaar will continue to be functional for the procedures under the Act like furnishing of return of income processing of refunds etc the CBDT statement said After March 31 2023 the PAN of taxpayers who fail to intimate their Aadhaar as required shall become inoperative and all the consequences under the Act for not furnishing intimating or quoting the PAN shall apply to such taxpayers the CBDT added As per data available till January 24 2022 more than 4334 crore PANs have been linked with Aadhaar Over 131 crore Aadhaar cards have been issued so far PAN-Aadhaar linkage would help in eliminating duplicate PAN and curbing tax evasion AKM Global Tax Partner Amit Maheshwari said It is advisable for taxpayers to check their income tax portal and ensure that Aadhaar and PAN are linked NRIs may have some concerns since in some cases they do not have Aadhaar Nangia Andersen LLP Partner Neeraj Agarwala said while PAN is used for various transactions like opening a bank account purchase of immovable property or proof of identity inactive PAN will trigger domino effect and individual who have not linked their Aadhaar may face multiple challenges Once your PAN becomes inactive the person will be restricted from doing financial transactions where quoting of PAN is mandatory like mutual funds subjected to TDS at higher rates and penalty under section 272B Agarwala said For those who do not have access to income tax portal the linking process is made available through SMS also he added PTI JD ANU ANU

New Delhi Mar 23 PTI The Income Tax Department is conducting raids on multiple premises of Hero Motorcorp as part of a tax evasion investigation against the countrys largest two-wheeler automobile company officials said Wednesday morningOffices and residential premises of the promoters including chairman and CEO of the group Pawan Munjal in Gurugram Haryana Delhi and few other locations are being covered they saidA team of officials of the department are looking at financial documents and other business transactions of the company and the promoters they said PTI NES MSS TIR TIR

New Delhi Dec 22 PTI The Income Tax Department on Wednesday conducted multiple searches in various states against entities engaged with Chinese mobilephone manufacturers on charges of tax evasion official sources saidThe raids are being carried out at premises located in the national capital region and some states in the south they saidSome vendors and distribution partners of these firms are being searched and more details are awaited the sources said PTI NES ANB ANB

New Delhi Dec 21 PTI The Income Tax Department has detected unaccounted income of over Rs 125 crore after it raided premises of two Asansol-based groups engaged in manufacturing steel and iron products among others the CBDT said on Tuesday The searches were launched on December 16 and about 30 premises of the unidentified groups -- also involved in cement poly fabs and agro-tech business -- were covered The search has resulted in seizure of unaccounted cash and jewellery of more than Rs 2 crore and has so far led to detection of total unaccounted income exceeding Rs 125 crore the Central Board of Direct Taxes CBDT said in a statement It said incriminating evidence in the form of documents and digital data stored in SD cards WhatsApp chats etc have been seized The SD cards have been used to keep details of a parallel set of unaccounted sales excel sheets of actual production data parallel tally accounts files cash payment details made to various parties etc the policy-making body for the tax department said It said unaccounted cash was handled by key employees of the directors and owners of the entities The key persons of one of the groups have admitted that unaccounted income of more than Rs 66 crore has been generated through unaccounted cash sales from its manufacturing units during the financial year 20-21 the CBDT added In certain other entities evidence has been found relating to claims of unsubstantiated purchases out of which purchases to the extent of Rs 20 crore have also been admitted by the directors as undisclosed income the statement claimed It said paper companies were being run by entry operators hawala operatives These shell entities have been found to have routed back the unaccounted money of the group in the guise of share capitalunsecured loan into the books of account of these entities the CBDT said It has been corroborated with admission by directors of these entities concerned that quantum of such routing exceeds Rs 40 crore the CBDT said PTI NES SNE

New Delhi Nov 27 PTI The Income Tax department has seized over Rs 4 crore worth jewellery and cash after it raided two real estate developers of Ludhiana in Punjab about two weeks back the CBDT said on SaturdayThe raids were conducted on November 16 and 40 premises of the un-identified groups were coveredThe major finding after the operation against the groups is about the receipt of unaccounted cash on property transactions the Central Board of Direct Taxes CBDT said in a statementDocumentary evidences in the nature of agreement to sale known as biyana in local parlance for certain properties have been seized These documents indicate that the agreement to sale for plots has been executed at much higher amount or rate as compared to the consideration disclosed in registered sale deed of the plot the policy-making body for the tax department said It claimed incriminating documents in the form of loose sheets excel sheets showing calculation of receipt of funds for certain property transactions soft data chats from mobile phones of the persons concerned etc was recovered Probe shows it said that unaccounted cash expenditure has been incurred on construction of residential house of one of the key persons In one of the groups defaults on compliances for the provisions of tax deduction at source have been detected with regard to payments made to the sellers of the land etc it saidThe searches have resulted in seizure of unaccounted cash of about Rs 2 crore besides foreign exchange and unexplained jewellery of about Rs 230 crore the statement saidPTI NES SRY

New Delhi Nov 23 PTI The Income Tax Department has detected unaccounted income of more than Rs 100 crore after it recently raided a Gujarat-based gutka distributor the CBDT said on TuesdayThe searches were carried out on November 16 at about 15 premises of the unidentified group in AhmedabadThe department seized Rs 750 crore jewellery worth Rs 4 crore during the operation it saidThe search action so far has led to the detection of unaccounted income of more than Rs 100 croreOut of this the group has admitted undisclosed income exceeding Rs 30 crore the Central Board of Direct Taxes CBDT said in a statementIt said the taxman seized incriminating documents and digital evidence during the raidsThe preliminary analysis of these evidences clearly indicate evasion of taxable income by adopting various malpractices such as unaccounted purchases of materials under-invoicing of sales and unaccounted expenditure incurred in cash Analysis of seized material reveals that part of these cash sales have not been recorded in the books of accounts it claimedThe department also unearthed evidences of undisclosed investment in immovable properties the statement said PTI NES ZMN

New Delhi Oct 25 PTI The Income Tax Department has seized unaccounted cash of Rs 2345 crore and detected black income of Rs 100 crore after it recently raided a Nashik-based land aggregator the CBDT said on MondayThe searches were conducted on October 21The main persons who had invested their unaccounted income towards purchase of large patches of land were also searched the Central Board of Direct Taxes CBDT said in a statementMost of these persons are engaged in the wholesale trading of onions and other cash crops in the Pimpalgaon Baswant region of Maharashtra the CBDT saidIt claimed incriminating evidences including records of large cash transactions made by these traders for investments in properties have been seizedSeveral bank lockers found during the search have been locked the statement saidSo far unaccounted income of more than Rs 100 crore has been detected as a result of the search operation the CBDT said PTI NES TIR TIR

New Delhi Aug 30 PTI The Income Tax Department has urged taxpayers to quickly send an online response so that their pending refunds for assessment year 2020-21 can be processed expeditiouslyIn an official statement issued on Sunday it said that till date 93 per cent of the refund claims in ITRs Income Tax Returns filed for assessment year AY 20-21 have already been processed In the past week refunds of over Rs 15269 crore have been issued which will be credited to taxpayers shortly it saidThe statement said that in order to resolvepending refunds of assessment year 2020-21 the department is in the process of communicating with taxpayers where response from taxpayers would be required in cases involving notices for prima facie adjustments defects adjustment under section 245 and refund failure due to bank account mismatch The department requests taxpayers to respond online quickly so that ITRs in such cases of AY 20-21 can be processed expeditiously it saidThe statement said the tax department has also commenced processing of ITRs 1 and 4 for AY 2021-22 and refunds if any will be issued directly to the bank account of the taxpayer For financial year 2021-22 the Income Tax Department has issued refunds of over Rs 51531 crore upto August 23 it addedThis included Rs 14835 crore of income tax refund in 2170134 cases and corporate tax refunds of Rs 36696 crore in 128870 casesDuring the last year financial year of 2020-21 refunds of Rs 262 lakh crore which is an increase of over 42 per cent over FY 19-20 were issued to over 237 crore taxpayers It may be noted that this included the refunds expedited in a series of measures providing relief to taxpayers during the pandemic the department said PTI NES TIR TIR