The new income tax return (ITR) forms released by the Central Board of Direct Taxes require some income tax assessees to disclose their assets and liabilities. Earlier, this was mandatory only for those who had income from proprietorship or partnership business.
But now the rule has been extended to all assessees. Apart from ambiguity over valuation of assets and liabilities, filing tax returns has now become more complicated.
What has to be disclosed
Any individual or Hindu undivided family (HUF) with total income of more than Rs.50 lakh in a year has to adhere to the new disclosure clause. A new section—Schedule AL—has been added to the various forms such as ITR1, ITR2 and ITR2A. It was already there in ITR3 and ITR4. According to the new norms, under Schedule AL, an assessee has to disclose the value of assets and liabilities that she owned as on 31 March 2016, while filing ITR for assessment year 2016-17.
The assets whose values need to be disclosed include immovable assets such as land and buildings, and movable assets such as cash in hand (including savings accounts balance), jewellery, bullion, vehicles, yachts, boats and aircrafts.
Besides assets, assessees also need to disclose liabilities (loans) in relation to the disclosed assets. So, if an assessee has a home loan against a house, she needs to disclose the cost of the house as well as the loan.
