Income Tax Informants Rewards Scheme 2018: Earn up to Rs 5 Crore by Informing CBDT About Black Money, Benami Property

You can earn a reward of up to Rs 5 crore if you inform the Central Board of Direct Taxes about black money, illegal assets or benami property. The Income Tax Informants Rewards Scheme 2018 came into effect this week.

New Delhi, Apr 27: You can earn a reward of up to Rs 5 crore if you inform the Central Board of Direct Taxes about black money, illegal assets or benami property. The Income Tax Informants Rewards Scheme 2018 came into effect this week. Under the scheme, a person is eligible for an even higher prize if they deliver information about undisclosed foreign assets under the Black Money Act 2015.

The new scheme is aimed at encouraging citizens to come up with any information on illegal funds. Earlier, according to the 2007 guidelines, the informant would get 5 per cent of the tax liability as the interim award with a ceiling of Rs 1 lakh. On the final recovery, the informant would get 10 per cent reward going up to Rs 15 lakh.

However, under the new scheme, the interim award will be a maximum of Rs 10 lakh, and if the cash seized is more than Rs 1 crore, the interim amount can go up to Rs 15 lakh. The final reward is 5 per cent of the tax liability and up to Rs 50 lakh.

In case of information on undisclosed foreign assets, the interim award will be 3 per cent of the tax liability in case of foreign assets with a ceiling of Rs 50 lakh. The final reward will be 10 per cent of taxes levied and can go up to Rs 5 crore. Both the amounts will be granted to the informants if the information leads to a tax discovery.

The government is hoping more citizens to come forward with information on black money or benami property with the huge jump in the amount of the reward.