GST data in Form 26AS as few Taxpayers show crores of turnover in GST and doesn’t pay a single rupee of income tax says Govt
In a statement, the Department of Revenue ( DoR) reiterated that there will be no extra compliance burden on the taxpayers for GST turnover displayed in the Form 26AS, which is an annual consolidated tax statement that can be accessed from the income-tax website by taxpayers using their Permanent Account Number (PAN).
The department was responding to queries made in certain sections of social media that the taxpayer will now be required to reconcile the GST turnover uploaded in the form 26AS with the turnover shown by him in the income tax return and this would increase the compliance burden of the taxpayers.
CBDT authorizes Income-tax authorities to upload information relating to GST return in Form 26AS of Income Tax.
The GST turnover is being shown in 26AS just for the information of taxpayer. DoR acknowledged that there may be some differences in GSTR-3Bs filed and the GST shown in the Form 26AS but it can’t happen that a person shows turnover of crores of rupees in GST and doesn’t pay a single rupee of income tax. There are quite a few such cases that have been detected in data analytics
DoR acknowledged that there may be some difference in GSTR-3Bs (summary input output forms under the GST regime) filed and GST shown in Form 26SAS. However, it can’t happen that a person shows turnover of crores of rupees in GST and does not pay a single rupee in income tax, the department said in a statement.
It mentioned that that the notified income tax return for the current AY 2020-21 already requires reporting of GST outward supplies in the Schedule GST. Therefore, the information displayed in Form 26AS would provide ease of compliance to taxpayers in filling the Schedule GST.
Also, the display of information should be seen as an important step in the direction of “Transparent Taxation – Honouring the Honest,” the department said.
The revenue department has noticed that many unscrupulous persons are trying to avail or pass on input tax credit fraudulently by generating fake invoices and has already formulated a strategy for identifying these fake invoice generators which inter alia takes into account the income tax profiles of the suspected fake invoice generators.
These persons in most of the cases never file their income tax returns or disclose very meagre taxable income in the income tax return.
