BBC Income Tax Survey: On the ‘survey’ in BBC offices, the Income Tax Department said that irregularities have been found in some tax payments. CBDT says that the income, profits shown by various group entities are not commensurate with the scale of operations in India. The IT survey in BBC offices started on Tuesday morning and ended on Thursday night after about 59 hours.
The Income Tax Department said that several discrepancies were found in relation to the transfer pricing documentation. CBDT says that IT teams have unearthed important evidence through statements of employees, digital evidence and documents. The statement further said that the survey action under section 133A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (Act) was carried out at BBC’s Delhi and Mumbai business premises.
The department further said that this group is involved in content creation, advertisement sales etc. in English, Hindi and various other Indian languages. The survey revealed that despite substantial consumption of content in various Indian languages (other than English), the income/profit shown by various group entities is not commensurate with the scale of operations in India.
The statement further said that during the course of the survey, the department collected several evidences related to the operations of the organization which show that tax has not been paid on certain remittances, which are being remitted as income in India by the foreign entities of the group. Has not been revealed. The conduct of the survey also revealed that the services of support staff have been utilized for which reimbursement has been made on behalf of the Indian entity to the concerned foreign entity. It was also liable to be subjected to withholding tax which has not been done.
