Mumbai: Aadhaar, a unique identity for every Indian, is not mandatory to comply with Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act provisions, a report in Business Today said.
On Thursday, the income tax department specified April 30 as last date for self-certification of bank accounts with the Reserve Bank of India-stipulated Know Your Customers or KYC documents.
"Customers are not required to submit their Aadhaar cards to comply with FATCA. A bank may want KYC details only if it is found to be a reportable account," BT quoted Meenakshi J Goswami, Commissioner of Income Tax (media and technical policy) as saying.
The April 30 deadline for completing self-certification applies to accounts opened between Jul 1, 2015 to August 31, 2016. FATCA enables automatic sharing of investor, account holder information between signatory in order to nab tax evaders.
Financial institutions that included banks can block an account that does not fulfill the requirement of self-certification before specified deadline. However, tax authorities can de-block these accounts once they get required documents.
