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Have you bought or sold a house or a plot for more than Rs 30 lakh? Then expect a knock from tax hounds. Real estate sector is high on the radar of the income-tax department, which is going to keep a close watch on buyers or sellers of property.

Realty deals whose value is more than eight times the gross income of the buyer could come under the scanner of the I-T department, going by the latest scrutiny norms circulated to officials. So, if your gross income is Rs 10 lakh per annum and you have bought a house for more than Rs 80 lakh, you could get a call from the department.

Gross income, for this purpose, shall be total income plus exempted income minus the total tax paid. This norm is being adopted to ensure that there is no evasion and people who enter into such transactions pay taxes honestly.

Cash deposit of Rs 10 lakh in your savings account could also bring you on the scrutiny radar. Individual assesses now have to report transactions which get captured in Annual Information Return (AIRs). Sale or purchase of house above Rs 30 lakh is reported, under AIR, by registrars to the department.

Scrutiny on these counts would be generated though Computer Assisted Scrutiny System (CASS) and not through manual intervention.

According to the criterion that were discussed at the recent annual conference of the chief commissioners and directors general of income-tax, capital gains of more than Rs 25 lakh could also attract scrutiny by the department in the current financial year.

Similarly, loss from house property of more than Rs 2.5 lakh would also invite the I-T department’s scanner, sources told ET. The real estate sector, which is known to attract large quantum of black money, continues to draw the attention of tax department.

Real estate agents and builders having a turnover of more than Rs 5 crore could attract scrutiny. Professionals like doctors, architects whose gross receipts exceed Rs 40 lakh and those who report profit of less than 30% of the gross receipt, can also face scrutiny.

States may have to opt for subsuming all taxes on goods, like purchase tax, under the unified goods and service tax (GST) regime.

The Centre, which is likely to give its report on the empowered committee’s recommended framework on GST in the next 15 days, is against continuing such taxes in the new regime.

Sources said continuing such taxes in the GST regime would be anomalous. It would not just be against the spirit of GST but would also lead to issues with the input credit system.

The Centre is fine-tuning its responses on the GST framework given by the empowered committee. The report is expected to be finalised in a fortnight and will be given to the committee for further discussion.

At present, purchase tax is imposed on purchases of certain commodities in some states. The Centre’s view is that purchase tax is levied on the same transaction that would attract Value-Added Tax (VAT).

The Competition Commission on Monday said it had asked market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India to amend regulations relating to corporate governance to make compliance auditing mandatory for listed companies.

The CCI has written to SEBI in this regard, Commission Director General Amitabh Kumar told reporters here.

The ambit of Clause 49 of the listing agreement, which deals with corporate governance and disclosure norms, could be expanded to include an audit report on the status of compliance with the Competition Act.

Inclusion of compliance audit would help ensure safety of shareholders’ wealth, he added.

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