Disclose foreign assets, income or pay Rs 10L fine

The Income-Tax Department on Sunday cautioned taxpayers that failure to disclose assets held abroad or income earned in foreign shores in the ITR can attract a penalty of Rs 10 lakh under the anti-black money law.

The department issued a public advisory as part a compliance-cum-awareness campaign launched recently by it on Saturday to ensure that such information is reported by the assessee in their Income Tax Return (ITR) for assessment year (AY) 2024-25.

The advisory specified that foreign assets, for a tax resident of India in the previous year, include bank accounts, cash value insurance contract or annuity contract, financial interest in any entity or business, immovable property, custodial account, equity and debt interest, trusts in which a person is a trustee, beneficiary of settlor, accounts with singing authority, any capital asset etc., held abroad.

The department said taxpayers figuring under this criteria “must mandatorily” fill the foreign asset (FA) or foreign source income (FSI) schedule in their ITR even if their income was “below the taxable limit” or the asset abroad was “acquired from disclosed sources”.