A new campaign was launched by the Income tax department on November 17 warning the assessees of a Rs. 10 lakh penalty if they lose to reveal the foreign-held assets or income made from abroad in their ITR, as per the PTI report.
The motive of the compliance-cum-awareness campaign is to ensure that the assessees report all the data in their ITR for the AY 2024-25. Additionally, the penalty will be levied under the Anti-black Money law, it asserted.
What Comprises of Foreign Assets?
As per the IT department advisory for Indian residents, a foreign asset shall comprise the bank accounts, cash value insurance contract or annuity contract, financial interest in any entity or business, immovable property, custodial account, equity and debt interest, trusts in which a person is a trustee, beneficiary of settlor, accounts with singing authority, any capital asset etc., ruled overseas.
It cited that all qualified assessees should fill the foreign asset (FA) or foreign source income (FSI) schedule in their ITR despite when their income is “below the taxable limit” or the asset abroad was “acquired from disclosed sources”, the report cited.
A penalty of Rs 10 lakh is levied on the failure to show the foreign asset/income in the ITR under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015, as per the advisory.
Levying Monetary Penalty
As part of the awareness campaign, the I-T department’s administrative body, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), will send “informational” SMS and email to those resident assessees who have filed their ITR for AY 2024-25 earlier.
The communication will be sent to those individuals who have been discovered via information obtained under bilateral and multi-lateral agreements recommending that such individuals may secure the foreign accounts or assets or have the obtained income via foreign jurisdictions, under the report.
The campaign’s objective is to remind and guide those who might not have wholly finished scheduled foreign assets in their provided ITR (AY 2024-25), particularly in the matters that have high-value foreign assets under the CBDTs statement.
December 31, 2024, is the deadline to submit a belated and revised ITR.
