22,000 taxpayers receive intimation notices over income tax discrepancies

The Income Tax Department has sent out a total of 22,000 intimation notices to taxpayers, comprising high-net-worth individuals, salaried individuals, trusts, and more, due to discrepancies found between their filed Income Tax Returns (ITRs) and the information on their Form 16 or Annual Information Statement (AIS). These notices were issued for the assessment year 2023-24 and were dispatched within the last 15 days.

Approximately 12,000 of these notices were sent to salaried taxpayers, following the discovery of disparities exceeding ₹50,000 between their claimed tax deductions in their returns and departmental statistics. Another 8,000 taxpayers in the Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) segment received notices due to an income disparity of over ₹50 lakh between their filed returns and the department's data.

Moreover, notices were also dispatched to 900 high net-worth individuals (HNIs) in cases where the disparity amounted to ₹5 crore or more and to 1,200 trusts and partnership firms when the disparity reached ₹10 crore or more.

The Income Tax Department's data analytics identified discrepancies in the returns of approximately 2 lakh taxpayers. These discrepancies involved income declarations, expenditures, or bank account details that did not align with the department's information based on transactions linked to their bank or UPI accounts.

Some taxpayers have overlooked including capital gains, dividend income, or even omitted information about additional bank accounts. The department emphasized that these discrepancies need to be addressed promptly.

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