Income Tax Department Access: What You Need to Know About Upcoming Digital Surveillance Claims
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The Indian government has clarified a recent social media claim that the Income Tax Department will have sweeping powers to access citizens' social media accounts and emails from April 1, 2026. However, the claim has been deemed misleading by the government's fact-checking unit, Press Information Bureau's (PIB) Fact Check. According to PIB, the Income Tax Department's powers under Section 247 of the Income Tax Act, 2025, are strictly limited to search and survey operations. These powers can only be exercised when there is credible evidence of serious tax evasion, and a taxpayer is subjected to a formal search. Law-abiding taxpayers are not affected by these provisions. The authority to seize documents and digital evidence during search and survey operations is not new and has existed since the Income Tax Act of 1961. The updated law aligns these powers with modern forms of digital records to curb black money and large-scale tax evasion, not to monitor everyday digital activity of citizens. The government emphasized that the provisions are aimed at curbing tax evasion and not at mass digital surveillance. Taxpayers with no evidence of tax evasion will not be affected by these provisions, and their digital platforms will not be accessed for routine assessments or scrutiny cases.
