"Government launches one-time foreign asset voluntary disclosure window for small taxpayers"
FAST-DS
Foreign Assets of Small Taxpayers – Disclosure Scheme; one-time voluntary foreign asset disclosure window with immunity from Black Money Act prosecution.
Black Money Act, 2015
Indian law imposing 30% tax plus equal penalty on undisclosed foreign income/assets, with prosecution provisions.
India's effort to curb undisclosed foreign income and assets has a layered legislative and administrative history. The Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015 — commonly called the Black Money Act, 2015 — was enacted to specifically address offshore tax evasion, imposing a flat 30% tax on undisclosed foreign income and assets plus an equal penalty, with stringent prosecution provisions. Prior to this, the Income Tax Act, 1961 contained provisions for taxing foreign income of residents, but enforcement was limited by the absence of reliable cross-border information.
The international architecture for information exchange has transformed this landscape significantly. India participates in the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), a multilateral automatic exchange of financial account information developed by the OECD, and the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), a US-origin framework that requires foreign financial institutions to report accounts held by US persons — and, reciprocally, enables the US to share data on Indian residents' accounts. Under these frameworks, India receives account holder names, tax identification numbers, account balances, and income details (interest, dividends, proceeds) from foreign jurisdictions. This data is now integrated into the taxpayer's Annual Information Statement (AIS) on the e-filing portal, making non-disclosure increasingly detectable.
Past voluntary compliance windows in India — such as the Income Declaration Scheme, 2016 for domestic black money — demonstrated that time-limited amnesty-style schemes can mobilise significant disclosures when the penalty structure is calibrated to be less punitive than the default enforcement route. FAST-DS follows this design logic, but is specifically targeted at foreign assets and calibrated for smaller taxpayers.
The Foreign Assets of Small Taxpayers – Disclosure Scheme (FAST-DS) operates through two distinct categories, each with its own tax treatment, limits, and rationale. The first category covers genuinely undisclosed foreign income or assets — income that was never taxed — up to a ceiling of Rs 1 crore. This is, in effect, a limited amnesty for offshore black money. The declarant must pay 30% of the fair market value (FMV) of the asset (or 30% of undisclosed income) as tax, plus an additional 30% as additional income tax in lieu of penalty, totalling a 60% effective levy. In return, immunity from prosecution under the Black Money Act, 2015 is granted.
The second category is structurally different: it covers assets up to Rs 5 crore that were acquired from already-taxed income or were acquired when the taxpayer was a non-resident — but were simply not declared in the relevant schedule of the Income Tax Return (ITR). …
Which one of the following situations best reflects "Indirect Transfers" often talked about in media recently with reference to India?
The term 'Base Erosion and Profit Shifting' is sometimes seen in the news in the context of
With reference to the Foreign Assets of Small Taxpayers – Disclosure Scheme (FAST-DS), consider the following statements:
1.Under Category 1, an assessee must pay 30% of Fair Market Value as tax and an additional 30% in lieu of penalty.
2.Under Category 2, assets up to Rs 5 crore acquired from taxed income but not declared in ITR attract a flat fee of Rs 1 lakh.
3.The scheme applies to assets that are proceeds of crime under the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002.
4.The valuation date for assets under the scheme is March 31, 2026.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
Which of the following international frameworks are used by India to receive information about financial accounts held by its residents in foreign jurisdictions?
1.Common Reporting Standard (CRS)
2.Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)
3.Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Pillar One
4.Prevention of Money-Laundering Act (PMLA)
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
Under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015, which of the following is/are correct?
1.The Act imposes a flat tax of 30% on undisclosed foreign income and assets.
2.A penalty equal to the amount of tax (i.e., 30%) is also levied in addition to the tax.
3.The Act provides for prosecution of offenders in addition to tax and penalty.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
A taxpayer has undisclosed foreign income of Rs 1.5 crore that was never taxed. Which of the following correctly describes the taxpayer's eligibility under FAST-DS?
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