CBDT designates officials for sharing data with GSTN

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The Income Tax (I-T) department will soon start sharing specific assessee related data with the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) to strengthen the system for prevention of tax evasion.

As part of the exercise, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has designated the Principal Director General of Income Tax (systems) or Director General of Income Tax (systems) as the income tax authority for furnishing information of assessees to the government entity managing I-T systems and data for indirect taxes.

On the request of the GSTN, the designated income tax authority would share data related to a company's turnover, status of income tax return (ITR), gross total income and turnover ratio.

"While furnishing the information, the specified income tax authority shall form an opinion that sharing of such information is necessary for the purposes of enabling the specified authority in GSTN to perform its functions under the Goods and Services Tax (GST)," a CBDT order said.

Tax experts said that taxpayers are required to share various details in the ITRs, but the current order on data sharing is one step forward towards containing tax evasion.

"Facilitation of exchange of data between authorities under income tax and GST is indicative of the government's intention to not spare taxpayers from escaping tax payable under any of the laws," said Rakesh Nangia, Managing Partner, Nangia Advisors (Andersen Global).

He further said that with more information in hand, the government would be able to validate the amount of income disclosed both under the income tax and GST which would enable the authorities to identify any under-reporting/non-reporting of income, if any.

--IANS

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