Suspicious foreign remittances under income tax department scanner

The income tax department has launched a drive to verify "suspicious" foreign remittances by entities with little or no reported business activity, the persons behind them, and the chartered accountants who issued tax determination certificates. Entities located in districts along India's land borders and remitting significant amounts of money abroad have also been covered in the exercise. The exercise has covered approximately 394 entities (including 117 entities located in land-border states), and 36 professionals, the department said in a post on X. "On August 18, the Department launched a nationwide detailed verification exercise to verify these (suspicious) foreign remittances, focusing on shell entities, the persons behind them, and the professionals who have issued Form 15CB certificates," the tax department said. The verification of suspicious foreign remittances follows data analysis and ground intelligence indicating significant overseas remittances by entities with littl