New Delhi:There is no such proposal to modify income tax returns forms, said the Finance Ministry sources when asked to comment on the news reports that appeared in certain sections of media where it is reported that the purported Statement of Financial Transactions (SFT) expansion would result in the filing of high-value financial transactions in ITR by the taxpayers themselves.
Stating this understanding as “totally misleading”, the sources in the know of the matter said that it is a false conclusion. The taxpayer would not need to mention their high-value transactions in their return. The reporting of high-value transactions to the income tax department is to be done by the third parties under the Income Tax Act.
Also, it is the most non-intrusive way to identify those who spend big money on various items such as business class air travel, foreign travel, spend big money in expensive hotels, send their children to expensive schools and yet they do not file an income tax return claiming that their income is less than Rs 2.5 lakh per annum.