Govt to constitute SIT for recovering Black Money

CONSTITUTION OF SPECIAL INVESTIGATING TEAM (SIT) TO IMPLEMENT DECISION OF SUPREME COURT ON LARGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY STASHED ABROAD

PRESS RELEASE, DATED 27-5-2014

The Union Cabinet today approved constitution of Special Investigating Team (SIT) to implement the decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court on large amounts of money stashed abroad by evading taxes or generated through unlawful activities.

The SIT will be headed by Hon'ble Mr. Justice M.B. Shah, former Judge of the Supreme Court as Chairman and Hon'ble Mr. Justice Arijit Pasayat, former Judge as Vice Chairman.

The Members of the High Level Committee will comprise:

i.		Secretary, Department of Revenue
ii.		Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India,
iii.		Director (IB),
iv.		Director, Enforcement
v.		Director, CBI
vi.		Chairman, CBDT,
vii.		Director General, Narcotics Control Bureau
viii.		Director General, Revenue Intelligence
ix.		Director, Financial Intelligence Unit
x.		Director, Research and Analysis Wing and
xi.		Joint Secretary (FT&IR-1), CBDT

The SIT has been charged with the responsibility and duties of investigation, initiation of proceedings and prosecution in cases of Hasan Ali and other matters involving unaccounted money. SIT shall have jurisdiction in the cases where investigations have already commenced or are pending or awaiting to be initiated or have been completed. SIT will prepare a comprehensive action plan including creation of necessary institutional structure that could enable the country to fight the battle against unaccounted money. The SIT should report to the court the status of work from time to time.

Tax evasion methods used for conversion of Black to White

We all are aware as to amount of parallel Black economy persisting in every Country around the Globe. This 'Black' only means unaccounted or undisclosed income. Usually, it is in form of Cash.

To convert this Black into white, tax evaders use many methods to avoid taxes using the loopholes or via systematic planning.

Below are the few methods discussed by the author. NEITHER THE AUTHOR, NOR THE BLOG ENDORSES OR ENCOURAGES USE OF the below methods. Please note that it is an illegal practise which is subject to punishment.

The below article is published with explicit permission from the author.

TOP 5 EASY WAYS TO CONVERT BLACK MONEY TO WHITE MONEY 

ROHIT KAPOOR 

CASE 1: Go to a Jeweler. Give him the amount you want to convert into white as cash. he would give you a cheque back for the same amount less 4%. He would give you a purchase bill to show that you have sold silver utensils to him. On the amount of the cheque when you file your return you will have to pay no capital gain tax as Silver utensils are Personal effects and capital gain does not arise on sale of personal effects. There you go , the money is white now!!!

CASE 2: Conversion of Black Money to White Money with the application of Sec 51 of the Income tax act, 1961. Mr. X : A Business man who wants to convert is black money to white. Property: Cost of Acquisition: Rs. 10 Lacs. Mr. Y: A Salaried person who wants to convert his white money to black may be because he has to make payment in black for the property purchased by him. Mr. X enters into an agreement with Mr. Y for the sale of property for Rs. 150 lacs with a condition that advance money of Rs. 30 lacs shall be given by Mr. Y and balance shall be paid within 3 months else advance money shall be forfeited. Modus Operandi: Mr. Y makes payment of Rs. 30 lacs to Mr. X by way of a cheque as the advance money and Mr. X in turns gives the black money to Mr. Y of the same amount. Now, Mr. Y intentionally fails to make balance payment within the due time and the amount is forfeited by Mr. X. In this manner black money of Mr. X is converted to white money.The money is white now!!!

CASE 3: Another popular way of converting black into white money is by getting a gift from a relative. For this modus operandi, the relative must possess white money. For example, you have some black money (say Rs. 10 lacs) which you want to convert into white. You can ask your relative to gift you Rs.10 lacs by way of cheque and you will in turn transfer your black money to him/her. Here 56(2)(vii) is not attracted as gift is received from a relative.

CASE 4:- Converting black to white by way of cheque People also give the black money to a person (say a family member or a friend) and take a cheque from them. They show that as a loan receipt and thus they can temporarily convert their black money into white. Then they again give them a check as a repayment of loan and receive cash which converts white to black again, but during the time the loan is outstanding, they convert their black into white, but people who do this are not aware that Section 68 on loans is applicable and you will have to prove the creditworthiness as well as the genuineness of transactions to the IT Department or else the loan receipt will be treated as income from undisclosed sources.

CASE 5: Another popular way of converting black into white money is showing income in cash like tuition income or any other professional fees.Just pay the tax at normal rate and your money is white now!!!! Also people make investment where it is allowed to invest in cash and where the maturity is tax free for example buying an insurance policy where you are not required to show all your premiums and the maturity is tax free. For example your insurance premium is 25000/- per annum and you can pay 6000 in cheque (shown in books) and remaining in cash, people increasing the proportion of premium paid in cash increasing as and pay entire premium in white for last two years before maturity. No ITO is going to check premium of more then last two years and it is a small example. People are paying huge cash premiums everyday. In case of this small premium, the cost of investigation exceeds the benefit to the exchequer so the ITO will give a test check for at the max last two years.

DISCLAIMER : I don’t recommend readers to follow any of these steps. I just want them to be aware regarding these false practices. I encourage open discussion regarding this article but advices, opinions, suggestions which may land the opinion seekers into trouble later on are not encouraged. I trust that a tax planning should be done in such a way that it can stand the test of the legal battle of course subject to debates.

Revenue exempted from disclosing info obtained from Financial Intelligence Unit justifying search operations

Preparation of satisfaction note on information collected from Financial Intelligence Unit to be treated as unpublished document for which privilege under Evidence Act could be validly claimed.

Facts:

a) The assessee was a leading importer and exporter of bullion, platinum bars and other precious metals;

b) The search and seizure operations under section 132 were carried out against assessee on basis of information received from Financial Intelligence Unit (‘FIU’) that heavy cash amounts were deposited in bank accounts of assessee and its sister concern on a regular basis;

c) The assessee filed writ challenging the search and seizure operations and claimed its right to examine satisfaction note to assail validity and bona fides of search and seizure operation;

d) On other hand, revenue filed an application claiming privilege of unpublished material in public interest under the Evidence Act

The High Court held in favour of revenue as under:

1) It couldn’t be denied that the FIU, reporting directly to the Finance Ministry, was responsible for receiving, processing, analyzing and disseminating information related to suspected financial transactions;

2) It was also responsible for coordinating with and strengthening the efforts of national and international agencies, investigation into it in pursuance of global efforts against money laundering, terrorist financing and related crimes;

3) The preparation of the satisfaction note on such information could be treated as unpublished documents for which the revenue has validly claimed privilege under sections 123 and 124 of the Evidence Act;

4) A large amount of accounted black money is floating in the market which poses a serious threat to the national economy. The Government of India has adopted several methods to discouraging the parallel economy being run by unscrupulous persons;

5) The FIU is engaged in collecting such information against the money laundering, terrorist financing and related crimes. The sources and methods of the organization collecting and processing such sensitive information couldn’t be subjected to public scrutiny to jeopardize the interest of the organization and national interest.

6) Thus, the application filed by the Income-tax department was to be allowed - M.D. OVERSEAS LTD. V. DIRECTOR GENERAL OF INCOME-TAX (2013) 38 taxmann.com 433 (Allahabad)