Technology, especially its tools such as data analytics and artificial intelligence, is ending the heydays of exploiting information gaps to hide income from the taxman. Tax authorities are detecting mismatches in tax returns using tonnes of information about large transactions from banks, mutual funds, companies issuing shares, stamp and registration departments of states and sounding alerts about possible tax evasion, with different wings of the revenue department, direct tax, indirect tax and customs sharing data. However, the nationwide drive to find evaders has also given a free hand to corrupt officials to exploit the system with arbitrary notices and demands. Small and large businesses are at the receiving end of the taxman's hounding, threats and at times even violence. Watch the video for more.Also Read: Indirect tax collection rises 12.3% to Rs 10.7 lakh cr in FY21

As tech helps tax authorities check evasion and fraud, taxpayers complain of harassment and misuse of powers

Foreign Asset Investigation Units (FAIUs) have been recently created in all the 14 investigation directorates of the Income Tax Department located in various parts of the country

GST department's intelligence wing conducted survey at the offices following fraudulent input tax credit by its vendor  

Based on cumulative inflows between April 2000 and September 2020, it is the 10th largest contributor with a 2 per cent share in total FDI flows

The I-T department has detected undisclosed income of Rs 450 crore after it searched an IT SEZ developer, its former director and a stainless steel supplier based in Tamil Nadu

The top ten highest-paid actors in Bollywood earned between $11million and $40million in 2019. Additionally, many celebrities who do have different sources of income have the added burden of managing them

The tax authorities are demanding a 15% service tax for the duration before GST came into force and 18% GST since July 1, 2017, when it was rolled out all over India

As per the tax notice issued by the taxman, the agency has invoked section 65 of the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act for an audit of accounts and records from July-March of 2017-18 or from the date of the last audit to FY18

In I-T parlance, compounding means that the taxman does not file a prosecution case against the offender or tax evader in court in lieu of payment of due taxes and surcharges

From now onwards, any communication from GST or Custom or Central Excise Department without a computer-generated DIN would be treated as invalid

Cases where a taxman has conducted raids and instances categorised under \"extraordinary circumstances\" shall also not be covered under the faceless assessment system set to be launched on October 8 in the country

CBDT says this \"one-time measure\" is being undertaken to mitigate unintended hardship to taxpayers in deserving cases and to reduce the pendency of existing prosecution cases before the courts

The penalty for ITRs furnished on or before December 31 is Rs 5,000, but double that amount for later filings. Moreover, there is the interest charged under Section 234A that builds up the longer you delay filing your tax returns

It is advisable to periodically check the status of your ITR filing after you upload your form, especially if you are expecting a refund

The new Direct Tax Law is likely to include announcements that would vastly simplify the six-decade-old Income-tax Act, leave more money in the hands of individual taxpayers, help India Inc, make tax litigations easier, and check harassment by taxmen, among other things