Income Tax Dept detects Rs 1300 cr black money after raids in Karnataka

The Income Tax (IT) Department on Thursday informed that it has detected Rs 1300 crore unaccounted income after raids in Karnataka. The department carried out search operations on 20 October 2022 and 2 November on certain individuals who had executed Joint Development Agreements (JDAs) with various real-estate developers. The raids covered more than 50 premises spread across Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Goa.

During the course of the search operations, a large number of incriminating pieces of evidence in the form of documents and digital data have been found and seized, the department said in a statement.

The tax sleuths also seized evidence regarding the sale agreements, development agreements, and occupancy certificates (OCs). This evidence revealed that the land owners had not disclosed income accrued to them from capital gains on the transfer of the land given for development through JDAs to various developers, even after issuing the OCs from the authorities.

In many instances, the department said the land owners suppressed income from capital gains for various years by artificially inflating the cost of acquisition and various other costs, and by not disclosing the full value of consideration on transfer land.

It was also found that some of the landowners didn’t even file their ITRs for various years, where capital gains income had accrued to them. When confronted, the statement said, the assessees concerned admitted their lapses and agreed to disclose income from capital gains detected in their respective cases, and pay due taxes thereon.

"So far, the search actions have led to the detection of unaccounted income of more than Rs. 1300 crore. Further, undisclosed assets in the nature of cash and gold jewellery worth more than Rs. 24 crore have also been seized," the department said in a statement.