India Grants Tax Officials Sweeping Digital Access Powers

India's income tax department will gain powers to access citizens' social media accounts, emails and other digital spaces beginning April 2026 under the new income tax bill, in a significant expansion of its search and seizure authority.

The legislation, which has raised privacy concerns among legal experts, allows tax officers to "gain access by overriding the access code" to computer systems and "virtual digital spaces" if they suspect tax evasion.

The bill broadly defines virtual digital spaces to include email servers, social media accounts, online investment accounts, banking platforms, and cloud servers.

"The expansion raises significant concerns regarding constitutional validity, potential state overreach, and practical enforcement," Sonam Chandwani, Managing Partner at KS Legal and Associates, told Indian newspaper Economic Times.

Not going to work

[Anonymous Coward]

I've seen Bollywood movies. And from that, I know that the tax money is in the ceiling and in a jar in the living room. Also, those guys have rocket launchers, so they might want to be really careful!

Re: Megalomaniac

[RazorSharp]

You mean Modi? Too late.

Re: Megalomaniac

[zawarski]

Proving, once again, you can use Leon and Drumf to hijack any /. thread. Noice.

Re: Megalomaniac

[fluffernutter]

Was it not relevant? Article seems to say that this is a big deal, but really compared to elsewhere in the world it isn't.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

I was thinking about Ken Thompson's compromised C compiler, and I realized that if Trump had been president...

The MERLIN assembler cost me $37.95 at my local bookstore, and was written by Glen Bredon and sold by Roger Wagner publishing. I was just worrying: are either of them Canadian? Because if they were and Trump had been president, the price would be $47.44. Fortunately, once I googled them, I saw...

I bittorrented some movies and didn't recognize some of the cities they were filmed in...

The maps are dis

Least they could do

[bleedingobvious]

...is take their victi.... taxpayer out to dinner first.

And provide the lube.

When did the world flip over to "INSANE FASCISM" mode?

Re:

[ThurstonMoore]

About 10 years ago.

The income tax distorts governance itself

[Anonymous Coward]

I've had a change of heart on federal income tax. On the surface, it's just a way for the government to generate revenue—it has to get its funding from somewhere. But I now see that the method of taxation itself fundamentally alters the relationship between the government and its people.

When the government relies on taxing individual income, it shifts from serving its citizens to exploiting them as a revenue source. This dynamic creates an inherent friction, where the government no longer answers to t

Re:

[Beyond_GoodandEvil]

I've had a change of heart on federal income tax. On the surface, it's just a way for the government to generate revenueâ"it has to get its funding from somewhere. But I now see that the method of taxation itself fundamentally alters the relationship between the government and its people.
You are close, but not quite there. The reason for the byzantine tax code, and why simpler "flat or consumption" taxes won't replace them, is because the tax code(in addition to a revenue source) is a cudgel to compel

Taxpayers are a minority

[backslashdot]

So they can be abused. Ben Franklin on democracy: "Two wolves and a lamb deciding on what to have for dinner."

The New License Raj

[BigFire]

Albeit in a different form.

Extreme Poverty

[bill_mcgonigle]

People say India has 300M people living in extreme poverty with no sanitation.

Are existing tax revenues used wisely?

Re:

[whitroth]

Not enough billionaires and mega-millionaires being taxed.