The new tightened guidelines issued by the Income Tax Department, effective from 17 June 2019, have made serious offences under the Black Money and Benami Law, generally non-compoundable. It means that from now on, a person or entity cannot settle such a tax evasion just by paying off the tax and penalty with interest.

An IANS report said that the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has issued directions to its senior officials, listing 13 cases where offences are not to be generally compounded and also grouped the offences in two parts.

Category 'A' includes failures to pay tax deducted at source (TDS) under Chapter XVII-B or tax payable under Section 115-0 and failure to pay the tax collected at source (TCS), among others.

Category 'B' include offences like willful attempt to evade tax, failure to produce accounts and documents, and producing false statement in verification.

Offences in the first category are open to compounding, however, when found guilty on more than three occasions, would not be generally compounded.

Willful evasion of tax, removal or concealment or transfer or delivery of property to thwart tax recovery in a search operation, offences under sections 275A, 275B and 276 of the Act, any offence under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015 and offences under the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988, would not merit compounding by tax authorities.