Over 30k taxpayers declare foreign assets, income of Rs 30,300 crore: FM

A 'nudge' campaign was carried out by government in which taxpayers were nudged to voluntarily disclose their Foreign Income and Assets

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said more than 30,000 taxpayers have revised their I-T returns or filed belated returns and declared additional foreign assets and income of about Rs 30,300 crore.

"We carried out a 'nudge' campaign in which we nudged taxpayers to voluntarily disclose their Foreign Income and Assets. SMS and E-mails were sent to around 19,501 select taxpayers, asking them to review their Income Tax Returns filed for the 2024-25 based on information available to Income Tax of foreign deposits etc," she said in reply to Finance Bill 2025 in the Lok Sabha.

As a result of the campaign, she said out of 19,501 taxpayers, a total of 11,162 taxpayers revised their returns and filled out Schedule Foreign Assets Form, declaring total assets of Rs 11,259.29 crores disclosing foreign income of Rs 154.42 crore.

 

In addition to the above, she said 883 taxpayers revised their ITRs and corrected their status from resident to non-resident in the revised return for 2024-25.

Due to this outreach, there was a 'ripple effect', she said.

An additional 13,516 taxpayers declared foreign assets of Rs 7,564 crore and foreign income of approximately Rs 353 crore in their revised ITR for 2024-25.

"Cumulatively, this simple nudge resulted in the declaration of foreign assets worth Rs 29,208 crore and foreign income of Rs 1,089 crore (Rs 30,297 crore) in Schedule FA (foreign assets) by 30,161 taxpayers," she said.

So, the nudge campaign about property abroad has yielded good results with tax assessee disclosing their properties and also paying money due to them, she said.