NEW DELHI: Domestic tax payers will now have limited scope to conceal or evade their income abroad, as non-disclosure of overseas assets will become a ‘very risky affair’ from 2017.
The government will start getting information from various countries by signing bilateral agreements, Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Finance said on Thursday.
Addressing the sixth meeting of the Group on Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI), Sinha said the CBDT has constituted an ‘Information Security Committee’ to ensure confidentiality of data received from foreign countries.
He said steps are being taken to put in place a robust information security mechanism in the Income Tax department by constituting the committee at CBDT level and local information security commission at cadre control and through issuance of guidelines.
The tax department will come up with a revised guidance note of AEOI before December 31, 2015.
Sinha said over 100 nations are taking part in the two-day global forum of AEOI Group and the meeting would work towards ensuring confidentiality provisions and would also discuss automatic and seamless exchange of information under the common reporting standards.