The Income Tax Department on Monday conducted multi-city raids as part of an ongoing investigation into tax evasion by entities helping individuals falsely claim deductions in their returns.
The searches are targeting individuals and their tax advisors—such as filers and accountants—who are allegedly facilitating fraudulent exemption claims. These include deductions made under the guise of political donations to registered and unregistered parties, medical insurance payments, tuition fees, and certain categories of loans.
Sources said the action follows findings that some taxpayers had failed to file accurate updated income tax returns despite being approached under the department’s NUDGE (Non-intrusive Usage of Data to Guide and Enable) initiative, which operates under the philosophy of ‘trust taxpayers first’.
The raids are being carried out across approximately 200 locations, they added.
