« Top Headlines » Open DEMAT Account in 24 hrs  How To File ITR Online - Step by Step Guide to Efile Income Tax Return, FY 2023-24 (AY 2024-25)  Old or new tax regime for TDS on salary? This post-election 2024 event will impact your tax planning  What Are 5 Heads Of Income Tax?  Income Tax Dept releases interim action plan for FY25 on tax collection, refund approvals   Income Tax Return: 5 lesser-known tax-saving tips from Section 80  Income Tax Return: 5 lesser-known tax-saving tips from Section 80  Why you need not rush to file your ITR immediately  Income tax returns: ITR-1, ITR-2, ITR-4 forms for FY 2023-24 available for e-filing  Section 80DDB tax benefits for specified illnesses: 5 things to know  Income tax slabs FY 2024-25: Five tips to help taxpayers decide between old and new income tax regimes  ITR-1, ITR-2, ITR-4 forms for FY 2023-24 (AY 2024-25) available now on e-filing income tax portal «  Tax return preparers get off to shaky start... M'lore Central Excise collects Rs 3913 cr tax... » Watch out! STT, VAT data under I-T lens July, 31st 2007 If you are planning to buy a large quantity of shares in a blue-chip company, better get your account books right. The government may soon use the security transaction tax (STT) data to track cases of income tax evasion. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has already set up a committee to find out how best the STT data, linked to PAN numbers of individual investors, can be used for IT purposes, sources in North Block told said. The Board may soon set up a similar committee to analyse VAT (Value Added Tax) data as well. Significantly, the committee is examining as high as 66 gigabytes (GB) of STT data, accumulated during FY 06 and FY 07. It is expected to submit its report within a month. Securities Transaction Tax or turnover tax, as is generally known, is levied on purchase or sale of an equity share or an unit of an equity-oriented fund. In addition, the investors need to pay short term capital gain tax at the rate of 10% if he sells his share within one year. A senior CBDT official said that the idea behind analysing the STT or VAT data would be to find out how these information can be loaded into individuals PAN Ledger Account, which like a bank account, would reflect his or her financial transactions. Finally, we will have a PAN Ledger Account of each tax payer. We are sitting on a huge STT and VAT data. We are in the process of analysing them so as to link them to ones earnings, he said. Amarjeet Singh, a tax expert and partner, KPMG, said that such a move might help in improving the nations tax to GDP ratio. Indias tax collection vis--vis GDP is mere 12 to 13% which is much below 22 to 23% recorded in the developed countries. By analysing existing data from STT or VAT, the government will be able to widen the tax base and restrain tax evasion, he said.