BharatPe founder Ashneer Grover in a social media post questioned the Income Tax department for asking startups to furnish three year ITR of all shareholders. He further went on to say that the shareholders are not taking loan but have actually invested money in the start ups.
His post on X, formerly known as Twitter read, "In the last 1 month, a number of startups (a few in my portfolio as well) have received Income Tax notices asking to furnish information about shareholders.
Bahut interesting hai (It's very Interesting) - they are asking start-up companies to furnish 3 year ITR of all shareholders. 1) How and why will companies have ITR of shareholders ! 2) Why would a shareholder/individual share their ITR with a private company ?
And the reason likha hai ‘to establish creditworthiness of shareholders’? Kyun ? Company shareholder ko loan thode nahi de rahi ? Ulta shareholder ne company mein equity daal rakhi hai.(Why? Are you giving the company shareholders a loan? On the contrary they have invested equity in the company.) Request @FinMinIndia to please look at it."
Attaching an image to give reference Grover attached an image to his post. In the image it is seen that the IT department is asking for the details like name, address, PAN and other details of the shareholders. The document that according to him has been shared with many startups in its second point says, "Provide documentary evidence to substantiate the identity and ITR of last three years of shareholders to substantiate creditworthiness the shareholders as well as the proof of genuineness of transaction in respect of fresh credit of the share capital/ premium account."
It further also asks for working ESP and justification for the quantum of premium, comparison of the working EPS and the year wise details of dividend declared during the year and three earlier years.
He also went on to ask why the IT department could not check its own system to pull out the ITR using the PAN details. He said "Response padh ke samajh aa gaya ki kitne log India mein ITR nahi bharte hai. ITR mein do party hai - tax payer and IT Dept. Why can't the IT department pull ITR from its own system by punching in PAN. Doosri baat ITR mein income from criminal activities ka koi line item nahi hota ;))" (Reading the responses I realised how many Indian's file for ITR. ITR has two parties - the taxpayer and IT Department. Why can't the IT department pull ITR from its own system by punching in PAN. Secondly, there is no section called criminal activities in the ITR.
What is ITR?
The Income Tax Return (ITR) is a form in which the taxpayers file information about his income earned and tax applicable to the income tax department. The department has notified 7 various forms i.e. ITR 1, ITR 2, ITR 3, ITR 4, ITR 5, ITR 6 & ITR 7 till date.
