New Delhi: An informant who tips off the Central Board of Direct Taxes about hidden stashes of black money or assets will be rewarded with a sum of up to Rs 5 crore.
The Income Tax Informants Rewards Scheme 2018, which came into effect on Tuesday, further assures an even higher prize if the information is about undisclosed foreign assets under the Black Money Act of 2015.
The scheme also applies on specific and credible information on tax evasion and benami (proxy) transactions.
According to officials, both an interim award and a final one will be granted to informants if their information leads to a tax discovery. The reward money is 10 per cent of taxes levied and the maximum cap for this is a massive Rs 5 crore.
According to guidelines issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes on August 28, 2015, an informer used to 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 – was subject to the final settlement of the case.