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Below the Union Budget 2024 Input on ESOPs and invest in social security schemes by Deepashree Shetty, Partner, Global Employer Services, Tax & Regulatory Services, BDO India

The penal consequences under the Black Money Act for non-reporting of certain assets in the tax return form was up to INR 10lacs regardless of the value of the asset located outside India. However, such a penalty is not applicable in case of non-reporting of bank accounts which has a balance of up to INR 5lacs balance in aggregate.
Employees who have ESOPs or social security funds are often parked in overseas accounts. The value of funds in such accounts may not be significant and in most cases could be less than INR 10lacs. In the case of non-reporting of such bank accounts by Resident and ordinary resident taxpayers, the penalty is higher than the asset bank balance itself. Hence, to ease the penal hardship, the threshold of INR 5lacs for any moveable asset is proposed to be raised to INR 20lacs. This would bring relief to such taxpayers and may encourage to do appropriate reporting.

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