Not good for rich families! Income tax notice will come home if you hide property abroad, business houses on the radar of these 8 big cities:

New Delhi. The Income Tax Department (IT Department) is going to tighten its grip on the big business houses and rich families of the country. The Income Tax Department has identified hundreds of business families who have allegedly not disclosed foreign assets or overseas earnings in their tax returns (ITR). The department has now made full preparations to send ‘show cause’ notices to these families in the coming few weeks. According to sources, this action is being taken on the basis of the data that the department has received through international treaties.

From Mumbai to Bengaluru, businessmen of these cities are on the radar.

According to Income Tax Department officials, this time mainly big business centers of Gujarat and South India are on the radar. The department has prepared a detailed list of business families from cities like Ahmedabad, Surat, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Mumbai.

A senior official, on the condition of anonymity, said, “The value of foreign assets held by these families runs into thousands of crores of rupees. Department officials are currently doing a thorough analysis of the data to arrive at concrete figures. High-level investigations into some big cases are also going on in the nodal office of CBDT in Delhi. As soon as concrete evidence is obtained, the process of legal action and sending notices will begin.”

‘Foreign treasure’ opened through AEOI and OECD framework

India is getting accurate information about foreign bank accounts and assets through the ‘Automatic Exchange of Information’ (AEOI) framework. This is a system that OECD countries have created to prevent tax evasion. Under this, following the ‘Common Reporting Standard’ (CRS), financial institutions around the world provide data of foreign citizens holding accounts there to their tax authorities, which is sent to the Government of India on an annual basis.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) data analysis for the year 2024-25 found that many high-net-worth families did not even mention these assets in their returns filed for AY 2025-26.

After the success of ‘NUDGE’ campaign, now the next big preparation

The previous ‘NUDGE’ campaign of the Income Tax Department was very successful, which has boosted the morale of the department. Under this campaign, those taxpayers were selected about whom information was received from foreign jurisdiction but they had not shown it in the returns.

Surprising results: After this strictness of the department, 24,678 taxpayers had to revise their returns.

Declared Assets: Through this, undisclosed foreign assets worth about Rs 29,208 crore were revealed.

Now the department is going to start ‘second phase’ action against big business families on similar lines.

The excuse of inheritance or old job will no longer suffice.

Investigation has also revealed that many Indian families have financial links with foreign countries through inheritance, investments made during old jobs or family settlements. Often families assume that it is not necessary to give information about old or inherited property, but under Indian law (Black Money Act), it is mandatory to give details of property located in any corner of the world.