‘Income Tax Department‘ has been trending continuously on Google Trends this month – especially in the last 15 days. The reason is clear: It is ITR filing time and people are turning to the internet to find answers to their tax-related questions.
But Income Tax Department is not trending just because of filing tax returns. In the last around 10 days, many reports surfaced suggesting the Income Tax Department is going after chartered accountants and related entities involved in fraudulent tax activities. Recently, the government came out with a circular saying that cases have come to light where taxpayers claimed fake deductions and exemptions. Regarding this, the government has now started taking strict action. All these developments have been responsible for the Income Tax Department trending among top keywords on Google Trends this month.
(Source: Google Trends page screengrab)
On July 14, the Finance Ministry issued an important circular, stating that the Income Tax Department has identified some CAs and professional intermediaries who were helping taxpayers get more refunds through fake deductions and exemptions.
After this circular, the Income Tax Department started raiding 150 to 200 locations across the country. These raids were mainly on those institutions and individuals who were filing fake claims in items like political donations, tuition fees, health expenses.
Identified by AI and data analytics, many taxpayers admitted mistake
In this entire action, the Income Tax Department used AI tools and data analytics. Initial investigation revealed that many taxpayers took wrong refunds on the basis of fake receipts and documents. In some cases, even TDS returns were filed fraudulently.
The result of this strictness was that in the last few months, about 40,000 taxpayers themselves came forward and withdrew their wrong claims, whose total value is around Rs 1,045 crores.
Govt staff, corporate employees also involved
The investigation also revealed that government employees, PSU employees and professionals working in multinational companies are also involved in this fraud. In many cases, people were learning the method of fake refund by joining these networks through WhatsApp and Telegram groups.
Tax department again in discussion on Google Trends
As these incidents are coming to light, ‘Income Tax Department’ is continuously trending on Google Trends. People are searching for information in large numbers about tax refund, ITR correction, fake claims and legal action. It is clear from this that tax related content has not only become a need of the people, but has also become a trending topic.
