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A claim Aishwarya RaiBachchan made 10 years ago of being a non-resident Indian during her tax assessment has come back to haunt her. Her fee is reportedly in the region of Rs 6 crore per film.
According to The Times Of India, Income Tax commissioner, central-I, has dragged the actress to the Bombay High Court against her claim that her Miss World income of 50,000 was non-taxable as she was an NRI.
On Monday, Aishwarya, through her counsel Percy Pardiwalla, opposed the commissioner's appeal, but a bench headed by Justice S Radhakrishnan thought it fit to admit it.
According to the same paper, the silver screen diva, who had then just started her career, had, in her IT returns for the assessment year 1996-97, declared a total income of Rs 2.14 lakh.
In 2000, during a search and seizure on her premises, the I-T department found that her passport showed her to be a resident as against her claim of being an NRI during the assessment year. She was out of India for only 92 days and not for 186 days as she "falsely claimed", said the taxman, and three years later (in 2003) reopened the proceedings against Rai under the Income Tax Act.
In 2004, I-T authorities ordered that the income of 50,000 pounds (equivalent to approx Rs 26 lakh) she had received for winning the Miss World title must be added to her income and she be taxed accordingly. The tax amount was approximately Rs 14 lakh which, IT officers say, with interest would now amount to almost Rs 50 lakh.
The Times of India maintained Rai had challenged the 2004 order and had got partial relief that November but she filed another appeal before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) challenging the department's power and moved to reopen her assessment. In October 2007, the ITAT ruled in her favour, deleting the addition of her Miss World pageant income from her "block assessment proceedings"
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