Robert Vadra converted Sky Light Hospitality had converted into a Limited Liability Company. (File Photo)
Recently, Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in law Robert Vadra converted Sky Light Hospitality, a private limited company owned by him, into a "Limited Liability Partnership", which means that one partner cannot be held responsible for another partner's wrongdoing.
The move came a month before the Enforcement Directorate issued notice to the company over a land deal in Rajasthan supposedly used for money-laundering when the Congress was in power at the Centre and in the state.
Auditing is not mandatory for a Limited Liability Partnership and they enjoy easier dissolution rules. Such a company barely needs to file its yearly returns and financial details. Private limited companies, however, need to comply with elaborate regulatory requirements.
Interestingly, new FAQs put out on Monday by the government on the Income Declaration scheme include a point that plugs attempts to escape liabilities by converting a company. It says a company that has become a Limited Liability Partnership has to declare its assets for the year in which it converted.
The FAQs also say that furnishing a PAN number is mandatory for the declaring income. One time declaration available for cases those who do not file Income tax refunds or ITRs. They also say that even those facing income tax notice or raids can declare income. But the government rules also that declaration of black money will be valid only when complete tax, surcharge and penalty is paid on or before November 30, 2016.
The FAQs are among the government's attempts to end doubts about the one-time Income Declaration Scheme or IDS, which started on June 1 and closes in September.
In the past month, the black money window has been flooded with queries from traders, businessmen and others during awareness campaigns and sessions across the country aimed at popularising the Income Declaration Scheme.
The income declared by the eligible persons will face tax at the rate of 45 per cent.
The government is working hard to make the declaration scheme a success as a similar scheme last year to draw information on undisclosed income stashed abroad generated only Rs 4,147 crore. The opposition had targeted the government for promising the sky while campaigning for the national election and achieving little while in power.