Alert:Taxman come through social media to your door

Photo of New shiny car or holiday cottage in social media will be burden

According the artcle of ET Government now working through social media.
A photo of your shiny new car on Instagram or the Facebook post about your chic holiday cottage may lead India’s taxman to your door.
Starting next month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government will begin amassing a warehouse of virtual information collected not just from traditional sources like banks but also from social media sites, as it looks to match residents’ spending patterns with income declarations, said people familiar with the matter. Officials will be able to spot those who pay too little tax without raiding offices and homes as they currently do, the people said, asking not to be identified citing rules on speaking with the media.
Built over seven years at a cost of about 10 billion rupees ($156 million), ‘Project Insight’ will complement the world’s largest biometric identity database and India’s most ambitious tax overhaul as policy makers try to get more people to pay up. While the economy is among the fastest-growing in the world, revenues aren’t keeping pace, bloating Modi’s budget deficit and triggering anxiety about over-zealous tax sleuths.
"Data analytics is the way forward for tax administrations across the world," said Amit Maheshwari, managing partner at accountancy firm Ashok Maheshwary and Associates near New Delhi. "This will also put an end to harassment by tax officials as there will be no public interface. Perceived randomness in scrutiny will come to an end."
Countries including Belgium, Canada and Australia are already using big data to unearth tax evasion that may have gone undetected without technology. India’s efforts resemble the U.K.’s ‘Connect,’ which is estimated to have cost some 100 million pounds. Since its inception in 2010, it has prevented the loss of 4.1 billion pounds ($5.4 billion) in revenue and the number of criminal prosecutions has risen to 1,165 from 165 a year, the London-based Institute of Financial Accountants said in a December 2016 report.