PODCAST | All you need to know about Income Tax Department's warning

The Income Tax Department has warned salaried class taxpayers against using illegal means like under-reporting of income or "inflating" deductions while filing their returns (ITRs). The department has stated that violators will be prosecuted and their employers will be intimated to take action against them. 

The Central Processing Centre (CPC) of the department has issued an advisory saying such taxpayers should not "fall prey" to unscrupulous tax advisors or planners who help them in preparing wrong claims to get tax benefits.

The department, calling it a "cautionary advisory" on reports of tax evasion by under-reporting of income or inflating deductions or exemptions by salaried taxpayers, said such attempts "aided and abetted by unscrupulous intermediaries have been noted with concern".

The advisory came after the investigation wing of the IT department unearthing a racket of extracting fraudulent tax refunds by employees of bellwether information technology companies based in Bengaluru, in alleged connivance with a tax advisor, earlier in January.