The tax department has identified land and real estate transactions worth approximately 8500 crore rupees where information about the transactions was allegedly not provided, the property value was understated, or there is suspicion of anonymous ownership. According to relevant information, the department is conducting a thorough review of these operations.
These deals include large-scale purchases of land, agricultural fields, farmhouses, and other expensive assets. The department is also monitoring transactions made in the financial year 2024-25 that were reflected in declarations for the financial year 2025-26, as well as checking transactions identified in the current reporting cycle.
Among the detected transactions totaling around 8500 crore rupees, deals worth approximately 2000 crore rupees are suspected of using an anonymous scheme. Officials are trying to establish whether the person whose name the property was purchased or registered under actually invested the funds and is the beneficial owner. According to Economic Times, the department will begin its review with current and past financial years, after which it will move on to analyzing transactions from earlier periods.
In many cases, sufficient income was not found to justify the purchase of property using the corresponding PAN.
The tax department has instructed its field officers to cross-reference the PANs used during the purchase, sale, and transfer of land and real estate with the PAN specified in the tax returns of the respective individuals. Furthermore, they are checking if there is a significant difference between the investment amount stated in the tax return and the actual value of the acquired property.
This check is particularly important in cases of suspicious anonymous transactions, as the property may be registered in one person's name on paper while the money was provided by another, thereby concealing the true beneficiary in the ownership records.
The department is paying attention not only to anonymous assets; it is also examining cases where the property value is understated, and the documents record an amount less than the actual payment. Cash payments hidden in real estate deals have also come to the department's radar. According to officials, by jointly reviewing information on the deal price, PAN, and tax returns, it becomes easier to determine if the trail of money matches the ownership.
In such situations, the department has sent email notifications to taxpayers.
All this activity demonstrates a shift in the enforcement strategy of the Tax Department. The department now identifies suspicious cases using data obtained from various transactions instead of relying solely on routine searches and inspections. According to employees, combating tax evasion has become easier due to the consolidation of data from different sources and the exchange of information provided by reporting entities, including banks and post offices, over the last two years.
The Tax Department is already running the NUDGE campaign. Under this campaign, taxpayers receive warnings about any discrepancies or inconsistencies between their returns and the information held by the department. They are given the opportunity to correct their returns and declare the necessary information. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) recently used this model to identify foreign assets and income hidden abroad.
According to the CBDT, after the first phase of this campaign, 24,678 taxpayers corrected their returns, leading to the declaration of foreign assets worth 29,208 crore rupees and foreign income worth 1089.88 crore rupees. The increased oversight of large land and real estate deals clearly shows that the Tax Department is preparing to strengthen control over tax evasion and anonymous transactions through data matching.