Finally Visited Income Tax Department Office, Baroda on 15/12/2021 (Yesterday)
With all of the grammatical errors, I assumed it was a fake letter, but it is not. I physically met the officer and took a picture of the door where he summoned me. (Proof can be found in the images attached to this post)
Sharing my experience:
First, I proceeded to the office, where I was sent to the Investigations Wing (Room 316), where all of the subordinates were present, before being directed to the officers room.
I just had a few documents and had to present them to his assistant first. He instructed me to submit a submission by writing a letter and attaching all readily available documents. Fortunately, during my first summons, I purchased a summons letter from a consultant and hand-wrote a letter for submission.
They were busy with other work and kept me waiting for about 40-45 minutes (bas 5 minute) before calling me alone because I was at the office with my wife, but they only let me into the room.
Officer asked me all the pointed questions, such as what I do, how much I invest, do you file ITR on a regular basis, Are you displaying this investment on ITR as well?, and so on.
Sir, I am a blogger with a several blogs, and I provided him my honest responses.
He asked for the URLs of my two blogs and checked my blog post on his laptop.
He also inquired as to why I had so many cryptocurrency accounts. Then I informed him that I perform affiliate marketing and that I created accounts on various exchanges just to earn commissions from new users that join. Affiliate links banners are shown on my websites. Cryptocurrency is not my major source of income. I invested about50-60k throughout the 2017-18 financial year and then stopped since I was in loss at that time.
Then he let me go before I had to submit all of the documentation from their postal department.
Later, his assistant asked if I had put in 50-60 lac+, to which I told that I had just invested in 50-60k.
I was confident that I would provide them with the best answers because I file ITRs on a regular basis and haven't invested much. The officers appear cooperative as well, since they only want to know that the person is not investing big amounts of money and is not involved in any unlawful behavior by hiding income.
My advice to everyone is to go to the office if you get a summons, since I got the first letter and did not go to the office, therefore I received another one soon after.
Don't be worried about missing details such as crypto profit/loss statements, ITR, income source declarations, and so forth.
I simply took a few details, such as bank statements for the financial year 2017-18 and screenshots of crypto exchange insights.
Also, if you did not earn 5 lacs or more during the financial year, you should submit a NIL return. Consult a better CA who is up to date on all upcoming events.
Our system is still running back date since they are seeking for people who invested in 2017-18. There may well be a few more such letters in the near future, so be prepared and gather all relevant accounting information from today.
Sorry for such a long post. But, I simply want to let know our crypto community that they shouldn't be concerned if they too received a letter.
Please let me know if you need a summons response format. I purchased one from a financial consultant and will provide it to you if you need one. (For Free)
Thank You!
