Will donating to charitable organizations be expensive? Notice to 8 thousand taxpayers, suspicion of tax evasion

The Income Tax Department has sent notices to about 8,000 taxpayers who donated to charitable trusts. The Income Tax Department suspects that the concerned taxpayers have shown donations to charitable trusts to hide income and evade tax.

notices sent because

In a news of ET, this information has been given by quoting the officials of the Income Tax Department. Officials say that the donations shown by the taxpayers to whom the notices have been sent do not match their income and expenditure. Taxpayers receiving notices include salaried individuals, self-employed and some companies. The Income Tax Department is also keeping an eye on those tax professionals who have helped the concerned taxpayers to make such transactions.

This is common in all cases

The official said that in the 8,000 cases in which notices have been sent, some things are common. In these cases, the donation of the exact amount has been shown, which was necessary to reduce the tax slab or get complete exemption. Apart from this, one more thing which is common is that in all the cases donations were made in cash. Similarly, tax professionals have been overpaid by taxpayers dependent on salary income.

Recently Sent Notices

According to the news, these notices have been sent to the concerned 8 thousand taxpayers in 3 weeks during the middle of March to the beginning of April. The notices sent are for the assessment years 2017-18 to 2020-21. Income Tax Department officials say that in the coming days more taxpayers can be given notices in such cases.

Trusts help in tax evasion

Officials said that the cases of companies are mostly related to small firms. The amount that he has donated to Charitable Trusts does not match anywhere with his earnings. He said that in such cases, the trust deducts a commission and gives the rest of the cash amount and donation slip to the taxpayers, which helps them to evade tax.

This action is possible on trusts

After these cases came to light, the Income Tax Department is now preparing to crack down on trusts. The Income Tax Department is probing the horoscope of those trusts, which help taxpayers to evade tax by issuing fake bills. Officials said that at present no action has been taken against such trusts, but if any irregularities are found then their tax exemption status can be terminated.

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