Mumbai: Bollywood actor Preity Zinta found herself in a long tax dispute after filing her 2016 income tax return as a non-resident, reporting an income of Rs 46 lakh. The tax department later noticed large credit and debit transactions in one of her bank accounts through its internal monitoring system.
Because these transactions appeared much larger than her declared income, the tax officer reopened her case under Section 147, which allows reassessment in case of suspected undisclosed income.
Draft Assessment Pushes Her Income to Rs 11 Crore
On March 31, 2022, the income tax officer issued a draft assessment order proposing to revise her total income to Rs 11.3 crore. Preity objected to this before the Dispute Resolution Panel (DRP), but on December 31, 2022, the DRP upheld the tax department’s additions.
Following this, on January 23, 2023, the final assessment order was passed against her.
The Bank Transactions That Triggered the Case
During investigation, it was found that Preity had carried out transactions worth Rs 13.10 crore—a credit of Rs 13 crore and a similar debit—in a new savings account she opened on January 25, 2016, with Corporation Bank.
After the withdrawal, the account had only Rs 10,300 left.
The tax department believed that the source of the Rs 13 crore credit was unexplained, and under Section 68, treated Rs 10 crore as unexplained cash credit, leading to the demand.
How Preity Zinta Fought Back—and Won
Preity appealed before ITAT Mumbai, arguing that the reassessment was not properly justified. A Coordinate Bench of ITAT studied the case and held that the Assessing Officer and DRP failed to properly examine the validity of reopening the case.
The tribunal overturned the earlier orders and instructed the tax authorities to review the reassessment procedure correctly and reconsider the merits.
On November 17, 2025, Preity Zinta finally won the case. She was represented by Advocates Dharan Gandhi and Vinita Nara.
