The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has recently announced a new scheme called Income Tax Informants Rewards Scheme 2018 through which the department will reward upto 5 crore rupees to informants.
The scheme announced by the CBDT regulates grant and payment of reward to a person who is an informant under this scheme.
According to the earlier guidelines, an informer will get Rs 1 lakh as an instant reward if the tip-off leads to tax recovery. The rest of the reward money, 10% of the total tax liability with a maximum cap of Rs 15 lakh, is subject to the final settlement of the case.
As per the said scheme, a person can get reward up to Rs. Five crore by giving specific information about evasion of Income tax on income and assets in India and abroad. It promises that the identity of the informant shall be kept confidential.
This scheme shall regulate the grant and payment of reward to informants in cases where information is received by a JDIT (Inv) from the informant on or after the date of issue of this Scheme that leads to detection of substantial tax evasion under the provisions of Income Tax Act, 1961 and/or the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income & Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015.
However, the new scheme will not be applicable to information regarding recovery of irrecoverable taxes for which the Board has issued separate guidelines.
The new scheme shall continue to be applicable in cases where information was received before the date of issue of this Scheme, the Board said.
A person who has furnished specific information of substantial tax evasion in a written statement in the prescribed form (Annexure – A to this Scheme) shall be considered as an ‘informant for the said scheme’. Based on this, a unique code will be allotted to such ‘informant’ by the prescribed authority.
No claim for reward shall be entertained from a person who is not an informant under this Scheme, even if such person has furnished some information in any manner.
