The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has started displaying information on taxpayers’ foreign assets and income on the Income Tax e-filing portal, in a move aimed at improving voluntary compliance.
The CBDT is showing foreign assets and income information received under the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) framework, in the Annual Information Statement (AIS) of eligible taxpayers. Until now, this information was only available with the tax department.
This initiative has been undertaken to facilitate, and not to investigate, taxpayers in meeting their compliance obligations, government sources said.
Harnessing Global Exchange
India receives financial information of its resident taxpayers from over 100 partner jurisdictions under the various international agreements and mechanisms for exchange of financial account information that India has entered into.
The tax department every year receives AEOI information for the preceding calendar year starting from September of the ongoing year. This information includes details of foreign bank accounts, custodial accounts, certain financial investments, interest, dividends and other specified financial income, as reported by the partner jurisdictions under internationally accepted standards of information exchange.
The CBDT is currently displaying information pertaining to 2022, 2023, and 2024 in the AIS. Information for 2025 will be displayed in the AIS once it is received in September or October, sources said.
By providing taxpayers with timely access to information available with the Department, CBDT aims to minimize inadvertent reporting errors, improve the accuracy of Income-tax Returns and make tax compliance simpler, more convenient and more transparent, sources said.
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