Issuing a clarification on TDS default-related notices, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Monday said that the reports about the department sending prosecution show cause to several small companies are “completely misleading and full of factual inaccuracies.” The notices have been issued only in some big cases where more than Rs 5 lakh was collected as tax deducted at source (TDS) from employees but not deposited with the I-T department in time, CBDT added.
“Having deducted tax from employees and other taxpayers and not depositing the same in time in the government treasury is an offence punishable under the law. It also affects interest of the employees from whose salary the tax has been deducted by the unscrupulous employers who have not deposited the same in time in the government treasury,” CBDT further said.
The taxation body also said that a few defaulter firms are “deliberately misleading the media to thwart action against themselves.”
CBDT also said that the prosecution notices have only been issued by Mumbai IT TDS office only in 50 big cases in the last one month. It also said that the TDS tax default is more than Rs 10 lakh and in 80 per cent of the cases. The 10 per cent cases are those where the default is between Rs 5 to Rs 10 lakh, it noted.
The TDS default is of more than Rs 1 crore, as detected in the survey, in the remaining 10 per cent of cases, it said.
“Prosecutions have also recently been launched against 4 big business houses where more than Rs 50 Crore of tax was collected by them from the taxpayers and yet not deposited with the Government in time,” CBDT also said.
