Delhi (Including Gurgaon,Faridabad, Ghaziabad
and Noida )

Mumbai

Chennai

Calcutta

Bangalore

Hyderabad

Jaipur

Kanpur

Pune

Ahmedabad

Ludhiana

Chandigarh

Surat

Vadodara

Kochi

Kozhikode

Trivandrum

Coimbatore

Madurai

Bhopal

Indore

Jabalpur

Vijayawada

Visakhapatnam

Agra

Meerut

Allahabad

Lucknow

Varanasi

Dhanbad

Patna

Jamshedpur

Kalayan

Nagpur

Thane

Q.

A person is already filing his returns regularly. Is he also required to file a return in Form 2C if he fulfils any of the above conditions ?

Ans.

No.

Q.

What is the last date for filing return in Form 2C for F.Y. 2001-2002 ?

Ans.

The last date for filing of such return for the F.Y. 2001-2002 is 31-10-2002.

Q.

Who are exempted from filing their return in Form 2C?

Ans.

Persons who are exempted

1. The Person is non-resident during the year.
2. Any senior citizen (i.e. those individuals who have attained 65 years of age), provided that he is not engaged in any business or profession, and he does not satisfy any one of the criteria mentioned at from (iii) to (vi) above (He may satisfy either or both of criteria mentioned at (i) and (ii) above).
3. Following Foreign travel is exempt:
   To Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Srilanka, or to Saudi Arabia on Haz Pilgrimage organised by Central Haj Committee, or to China on pilgrimage to Kailash Mansoravor organized by the Ministry of External Affairs.

Q.

What is the penalty for non-filing of returns in Form 2C by persons satisfying one of the six criteria?

Ans.

Non-filing of return of income which is required to be filed as above before the due date, may attract penalty of Rs.500/- (even for persons having non-taxable income) as per the proviso to Section 271F of I.T.Act. Notice u/s 142(1) can be served requiring the person to file his return failing which further penal action would follow.

Q.

Has this return in Form 2C to be filed every year?

Ans.

Yes. So long as a person continues to fulfil ANY ONE of the SIX conditions he is required to file his return in Form 2C every year, unless he files his return of income u/s 139(1) per independent liability to do so.

Q.

Are only individuals covered by this scheme?

Ans.

The scheme applies to any person irrespective of status i.e. even HUF, AOP, Co-operative Societies; Local Authority etc. would have to file return if it satisfies any one of the six criteria.

Q.

How is the Department going to identify people who satisfy one or more of the six criteria?

Ans.

The Department has since compiled a comprehensive database of persons/entities covered by one or more of the six criteria. Such data base has inputs from relevant agencies (e.g. Registrar of Properties, RTO etc.). This data base has already been put to use whereby the department is issuing letters advising, at the first instance, persons concerned to file returns, which would be followed up by statutory notices with all their attendant legal implications.

Q.

The general perception among the public is that once somebody is on the records of the Income tax Department he can expect frequent queries from the department and would suffer resulting harassment. Is it correct?

Ans.

Over the past so many years the policy of the Income Tax Department has been "Taxation with Trust" where-by majority of Income Tax Returns are accepted as such except for necessary processing for issuing refunds. Hardly 3% of the total returns are selected for in-depth scrutiny. As per the latest guidelines, the selection of a return of income for scrutiny has to be based on specific information and cannot be based on the whims of the Officer. The fear of harassment should be discarded.