Income Tax Department India

The Income Tax Department (also referred to as IT Department or ITD) is a government agency undertaking direct tax collection of the Government of India. It functions under the Department of Revenue of the Ministry of Finance.[5] Income Tax Department is headed by the apex body Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). Main responsibility of IT Department is to enforce various direct tax laws, most important among these being the Income-tax Act, 1961, to collect revenue for Government of India. It also enforces other economic laws like the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988[6] and the Black Money Act, 2015.[7]The Income Tax Act, 1961 has wide scope and empowers ITD to levy tax on income of individuals, firms, companies, local authorities, societies, or other artificial juridical persons.[8] Therefore, Income Tax Department influences businesses, professionals, NGOs, income earning citizens, and local authorities among others. The Act empowers Income Tax Department to tax international businesses and professionals and therefore ITD deals in all matters of Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements and various other aspects of international taxation such as Transfer pricing. Combating tax evasion and tax avoidance practices is key duty of ITD to ensure constitutionally guided political economy. One measure to combat aggressive tax avoidance is General Anti Avoidance Rules (GAAR)