HRA claims: Relief for taxpayers as Income Tax dept says no special drive to reopen mismatch cases

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Tuesday issued a statement, clarifying media reports claiming special drives to reopen cases with reference to HRA claims.

As per PIB report, 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. Any apprehensions about retrospective taxation on these matters and re-opening of cases on issues pertaining to HRA claims is 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.

The verification was done in a small number of cases without re-opening bulk of cases, especially since Updated Return for FY 2020-21 (AY 2021-22) could have been filed by the taxpayers concerned only till 31.03.2024.

It is 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, the report said.