More disclosures are required in the Income tax returns which are recently notified in the new ITR Forms. This underlines the Government's stated objective of increasing the tax net and reducing the possibility of tax evasion.
The highlights are as follows:-
- More disclosures for shareholders and directors of unlisted companies:-
- Details regarding unlisted company’s equity share holding.
- Directorship details along with PAN number of such Company.
2. More transparency through disclosures for globally mobile assessee’s:-
- Forms seek elaborate details with regard to the assessee’s residential status. Only self declaration on the residential status of an individual is not any more sufficient. Individuals need to report their number of days spent in India and outside India. Details of residence in foreign countries along with Tax Identification Number and availability of tax residency certificate from foreign countries also needs to be reported in specific cases.
- Expanded the scope of details of foreign assets and income from any source outside India to include details of foreign depository accounts, Foreign Custodial Accounts etc.
3. Donation Details: - Bifurcation between donation in cash and other payment mode u/s 80G deduction purpose will be required from now.
4. An additional disclosure for assessee’s showing Agricultural Income and claiming exemption from Tax: - For agricultural income, additional reporting details like location of the land, area and quality of such land will be required.
5. Disclosures for company investments: - In ITR-6 new schedules for shareholding of the startups are inserted. Shareholding of unlisted company requires extensive detailing in the new assets-liabilities schedule.