Bangalore: They are the heartthrobs of our current generation, they are the icons of the glamour world and yes, they are the ones, who are among the top earners of our country. But over the years, a significant number of Bollywood film stars have been in the news for all the wrong reasons. One of the burning issues is the tax-related infringement. A lot of stars have got involved in cases related to tax fraud, which time again proves the fact that they are the top targets at the tax inspectors' gunpoint.
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When talking about celebrities, who is better to start with than the King Khan himself? In the very beginning of the year the Income tax deparment sent a notice to Bollywood's superstar Shahrukh Khan for the Signature Villa on Palm Jumeirah in Dubai. Shahrukh claims the villa, valued at 
17.84 crore, as a gift from Nakheel Public Joint Stock Company in 2007 for endorsing the firm. But the company recently revealed to the I-T Department that the actor was not providing any professional service to the firm. As per the notice, the company has been using Shahrukh's name since 2004 to promote the Palm Jumeirah project. Khan was unable to provide any receipt for the endorsement. As Shahrukh was providing wrong details regarding payment while at the same time concealing a source of his income by claiming the villa to be a gift, the whole issue turned out to be a case of tax evasion.
If the "Badshah of Bollywood" is in guilt, what about the "Shahensha"? It of course doesn't go well with the Bachchan brand, but Amithabh Bachchan also received tax notice from the Supreme Court in 2009 asking him to give details of his income and proof of the security expenses amounting to 30 percent of around
6.90 crore incurred by him in 2001-02. The I-T department charged that Bachchan's representative before the authorities had earlier claimed having incurred 30 percent estimated expenses on security to protect the assessee from extortion, something the actor had himself later withdrawn. According to the I-T department, Bachchan had first stated his claim as security expenses and then justified it as standard deduction.
In this story of tax evasion another popular Khan of Bollywood has also played his role. Chulbul Pandey aka Salman Khan was charged by the I-T department with evading tax to the tune of
4 crore. In the assessment year 2000-2001, while Salman had declared his income as
9.32 crore, the I-T department's disagreement was that his actual income for the period was
13.61 crore.
The story continues with the charges against actors Sunil Shetty and Sanjay Dutt. Sunil Shetty was asked to pay 100 percent tax plus a fine of 15 percent for evading import duty on a Hummer imported from the U.S. in 2006. The Hummer, which would have cost him around
80 lakhs after payment of tax, ultimately cost him in excess of
1 crore. In a similar incident in 2005, Sanjay Dutt was also forced to surrender his Porsche to the DRI for failure to pay import duty on the vehicle.
In this old story of tax infringement, two Bollywood beauties have made fresh entries last week. Desi girl Priyan Chopra and Barbie girl Katrina Kaif were suspected to have "evaded income tax" on earnings from advertisements, foreign assignments and "guest appearances". The income tax officials had raided the homes and offices of both the bankable female stars. One report said that income tax officials had sealed a dozen bank lockers belonging to the two, and collected a number of bank statements, property documents and details of their investments. However, both Priyanka and Katrina have denied the charges against them.
Although they refute the charges in some way or the other, the question is always there - how the income tax officials can always be wrong? May be they are. But if they are not, then why our favourite stars are shining black? Tax fraud is a deliberate act and is not an act of negligence by the concerned person. If you are on the guilty side, no excuses.
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