The Income Declaration Scheme, 2016 (the Scheme) provides an opportunity to persons who have not paid full taxes in the past to come forward and declare their undisclosed income and assets. The Scheme is open for declarations up to 30.9.2016.

As regards, concerns regarding confidentiality of the information filed under the Scheme, it is reiterated that information contained in a valid declaration is confidential and shall not be shared. In respect of declarations filed with the Commissioner of Income-tax, Centralised Processing Centre, Bengaluru [CIT (CPC)], the declaration shall not be shared even with the jurisdictional Principal Commissioner / Commissioner and payments made under the Scheme shall not be visible to the jurisdictional officers. Form-2 and Form-4 required to be issued in such cases shall be system generated by the CPC.

Similarly, the declaration filed with jurisdictional Principal Commissioner/Commissioner shall not be shared with any authority within or outside the department including the jurisdictional Assessing Officer. Further, the payments under the Scheme shall neither be reflected in 26AS statement nor can be viewed by the Assessing Officer in the Online Tax Accounting System (OLTAS) of the Department in the interest of confidentiality.

 

Confidentiality of tax declarations upheld; declaration details and payments remain withheld from assessing officers and public tax records. The Scheme protects confidentiality of valid declarations by prohibiting disclosure of declaration contents and payment information to other authorities; declarations filed at the Centralised Processing Centre are not shared with jurisdictional officers and required forms are system generated. Declarations filed with jurisdictional principal commissioners/commissioners likewise must not be disclosed to any authority, and payments under the Scheme are excluded from taxpayer information and online accounting displays to preserve confidentiality.