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Following a Budgetary promise, the Undisclosed Foreign Income
and Assets (Imposition of Tax) Bill, 2015 is introduced to tax
foreign undisclosed income and assets of tax residents of
India.
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Non-disclosure of foreign income and assets is chargeable to 30%
tax with a penalty of three times the tax due and rigorous
imprisonment of between 3-10 years.
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A one-time short compliance window has been provided for
taxpayers to come clean. Tax and penalty are payable but there is
immunity from prosecution.
Buoyed with the recent success in obtaining information from
Swiss authorities on undisclosed accounts of Indians in Swiss
banks, the Finance Minister had proposed in the Budget (announced
on 28 February) that he would introduce a Bill in the ongoing
Parliamentary session to deal solely with offshore black money.
This led to the 'The Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets
(Imposition of Tax) Bill, 2015' ("UFIA
Bill"), whose key features are the subject of
