Government reiterates that information contained in a valid declaration under the Income Declaration Scheme, 2016 is confidential and shall not be shared with any authority

The Income Declaration Scheme, 2016 (the Scheme) provides an opportunity to persons who have not paid full taxes in the past to come forward and declare their undisclosed income and assets. The Scheme is open for declarations up to 30.9.2016.

As regards, concerns regarding confidentiality of the information filed under the Scheme, it is reiterated that information contained in a valid declaration is confidential and shall not be shared. In respect of declarations filed with the Commissioner of Income-tax, Centralised Processing Centre, Bengaluru [CIT (CPC)], the declaration shall not be shared even with the jurisdictional Principal Commissioner / Commissioner and payments made under the Scheme shall not be visible to the jurisdictional officers. Form-2 and Form-4 required to be issued in such cases shall be system generated by the CPC.

Similarly, the declaration filed with jurisdictional Principal Commissioner/Commissioner shall not be shared with any authority within or outside the department including the jurisdictional Assessing Officer. Further, the payments under the Scheme shall neither be reflected in 26AS statement nor can be viewed by the Assessing Officer in the Online Tax Accounting System (OLTAS) of the Department in the interest of confidentiality.