Is it possible to get data on the amount of revenue that the Union Government has earned from capital gains tax, both long term and short term?
Hi Malini,
I doubt that we have actual number about the collection. One proxy is income tax return data, but I guess you know that this is not total collection, but the amount filed in tax returns, and we don’t know how much of tax collection from capital gains tax was outside the return filed.
I would guess the exclusion to be relatively small, because the people who are earning and paying capital gains, especially from financial assets are more likely to file tax return.
One possible source could be filing RTI maybe.
I agree with you, Suraj, that perhaps one way to get this data is by filing RTI.
More importantly, it is a puzzle why the government does it publish this data in budget documents. Even the amount collected through wealth tax used to be part of the receipts budget, before wealth tax was abolished.
In fact, in Receipt Budget, where they give the definition/ details of each tax head for which the collection is given, Capital Gain Tax is not even mentioned.
It is puzzle that why this number is not given in the budget.
Yes, that was exactly my point when I said the government does not publish this data in budget documents, even though the amount collected through wealth tax used to be part of the receipts budget, before wealth tax was abolished.