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Mar 08, 2025
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Can tax officials really ask you about daily rations and toiletries? Here’s what experts say
The Income Tax Bill, 2025 was tabled in Parliament during the Budget session. Earlier, it was perceived as an effort to just simplify the language and structure of the Income Tax Act, 1961. But now the details of the Bill are out and it’s now clear that it is just not about a simplification exercise.
One of the newly introduced provisions of the Bill gives tax officials rights to investigate taxpayers’ social media profiles, emails, bank accounts, online investments and trading accounts. In case of tax-evasion suspicion or if they suspect that you have evaded taxes or have any undeclared assets, cash, gold, jewellery, or other valuables, they can launch an investigation, which will spread to tracking social media, emails, and financial transactions. This new provision, part of the new Income Tax Bill, will be effective from April 1, 2026.
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