Rs. 10,000 Crore Tax Evasion by Online Retailers discovered by Income Tax Dept.

The Income Tax Department has discovered tax evasion of about Rs. 10,000 crore over three years, as per report.

The evasion is said to have been carried out by online shops selling items through social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. According to the article, the IT department has notified 45 brands operating across the country.

Similar notifications will most certainly be delivered to other firms soon. According to the research, the aforementioned firms either did not pay their taxes or underreported their income.

A senior official said, “Apart from the large e-Commerce businesses, we are closely monitoring the shops on Instagram and Facebook and have discovered evasion to the tune of about Rs. 10,000 crores.”

Between the latter week of October and November 15, the IT department issued out notifications. According to the study, these letters are for the evaluation years 2020 to 2022.

The source went on to say, “We have sent intimation notices to about 45 such etailers and will send notices to more in months to come.”

According to the report, the 45 companies specialise in garments, jewellery, footwear, bags, and gift products. Among the firms on the list are several well-known merchants who use social media to contact customers. Several enterprises that got IT notices also sold their products overseas.

The country has more than 229 million active Instagram users, the highest in the world. The corporation also has the most Facebook users, with over 314 million. According to government officials, these 45 entities have a remarkable turnover, according to the report.

“They are just selling via Instagram with just a small shop and warehouses and had turnovers over Rs. 110 crore, while they had filed income tax returns of Rs. 2 crore,” an official explained.

The majority of payments received by these online businesses were made via UPI, making it easy for the IT department to trace these transactions.