No Special Drive to Re-Open Cases of Mismatch in HRA Claims | CBDT

Press Release, dated 08-04-2024

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has clarified that there is no special drive to re-open cases of mismatch, and media reports alleging that large-scale re-opening is being undertaken by the CBDT are completely misplaced.

Certain instances of mismatch of information as filed by the taxpayer and as available with the Income Tax Department have come to the notice of the Department as part of its routine exercise of verification of data. In such cases, the Department has alerted the taxpayers to enable them to take corrective action. However, some posts on social media and articles in the media have highlighted enquiries initiated by the CBDT in cases where employees have made incorrect claims of HRA and rent paid.

At the outset, the board stated that any apprehension about retrospective taxation on these matters and re-opening cases on issues pertaining to HRA claims were completely baseless.

Data analysis was carried out in some high-value cases of mismatch between the rent paid by the employee and receipt of rent by the recipient for the FY 2020-21.

This verification was done in a few cases without re-opening the bulk of cases, especially since the Updated Return for FY 2020-21 (AY 2021-22) could have been filed by the taxpayers concerned only till 31.03.2024. Further, it was underlined that the objective of the e-verification was to alert cases of mismatches of information for FY 2020-21 only without affecting the others.

Click Here To Read The Full Press Realease