The Income Tax Department is preparing to levy tax on people who invest in virtual currency like BITCOIN. For this, the department sent a notice to several lakh people. Sushil Chandra, Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said that the department is trying to recover the tax on such investments.
Chandra said that tax officials have come to the conclusion that many such investors have not been able to advance their profits. At the same time, some others have not given clear explanation about this in past tax returns. In December last year, the department had conducted survey at the All India level in these virtual currency exchanges. He said that we have sent notices to many such investors. Many of them have agreed to pay taxes. As far as the investment made in Bitukwine is concerned, we will definitely recover the tax from them. In his budget speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that all virtual currencies including Bitquine are illegal and the government will make all efforts to end them.
In response to another question, Chandra said that he is confident that the department will not only achieve the target of direct tax collection in the current financial year but will also cross it. He said that the growth rate of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the last quarter will increase and the economy is better, there is no negative factor, which will definitely make us more advance. The Income Tax Department has set a target of direct tax collection of Rs 9.8 lakh crore in the current financial year.
