New Delhi, Nov 17 (FN Representative) Covering as many as 50 premises spread across Bengaluru, Mumbai and Goa, the Income Tax (I-T) Department recently conducted search and seizure operations on certain individuals who had executed joint development agreements (JDAs) with various real estate developers. In a statement issued today, the department said that search and seizure actions were conducted on October 20 and November 2. It said that search actions have led to detection of unaccounted income of more than Rs 1,300 crore. The taxmen seized cash and jewelleries worth more than Rs 24 crore during the crackdown on suspected black money. ‘During the course of the search operations, a large amount of incriminating evidences, in the form of documents and digital data have been found and seized. Evidences regarding the sale agreements, development agreements and occupancy certificates (OCs) have also been seized.
These evidences revealed that the land owners had not disclosed income accrued to them from capital gains on transfer of the land given for development through JDAs to various developers, even after issue of the OCs from the authorities,’ the statement said. ‘It was also unearthed that in many instances, the land owners suppressed income from capital gains for various years by artificially inflating the cost of acquisition and various other costs, and by not disclosing full value of consideration on transfer land,’ the statement said. ‘It was also found that some of the land owners didn’t even file their ITRs for various years, where capital gains income had accrued to them. When confronted , the assessees concerned admitted their lapses and agreed to disclose income from capital gains detected in their respective cases, and pay due taxes thereon,’ the statement added.