« Top Headlines » Open DEMAT Account in 24 hrs  No more tax filing hassles with digital Form 16 Know how it works «  No extension of IT return date... Noose to tighten on tax truants... » I-T Dept gearing up to check tax evasion July, 19th 2007 The Income Tax Department is gearing up to prepare a 360-degree tax profiling of individual tax payers in the country to keep a tab on tax evasion and money laundering. "Finance Minister has given a go-ahead for integrated 360-degree mapping of individual tax payers by utilising data collected from various sources like annual information returns (AIRs) from banks, credit cards, mutual funds, stock market and property registrars," a senior Finance Ministry official said. Only yesterday, Finance Minister P Chidambaram had said that in the meeting of chief income tax commissioners, decision has been taken for integrated tax mapping. He, however, declined to give details about the project. Sources said after a successful pilot project on integrated tax profiling in Delhi, the I-T department also has plans to prepare a huge data bank that would have all sorts of information on potential tax evading individuals and corporate houses. The government has so far gathered information about Rs 60,00,000 crore investment by tax payers through AIRs. Under the tax mapping, the department plans to explore cases involving large scale tax evasion. The sources said the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under the ministry will also provide information about potential tax evaders, as it collects and analyses information about financial transactions through banks and other financial institutions.