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Income Tax Trouble For Priyanka Chopra Over Luxury Gifts

Popular Indian actress Priyanka Chopra has become pretty well settled in abroad, and her recent posts on Instagram and other social media handles say it very well. After giving some landmark performances in Bollywood, she proved herself in Hollywood by making debut in ‘Baywatch’.

She is riding high on success. Priyanka Chopra has always been in news for one or other reason. Dearly called as ‘Desi girl’, she is also one of the names who is representing India in Hollywood. The Desi Girl is currently busy shooting for the third season of hit television series Quantico. She is also shooting for movies like ‘A Kid Like Jake’ and ‘Isn’t It Romantic’.

After the success of her show ‘Quantico’, she has become very popular and signed a couple of projects with some of the biggest procurers and actors in the world. In the last two years or so, Priyanka has worked extremely hard on transforming herself into a more versatile actor. She has also done extremely well in adjusting to the new style and ways of the western world.

But, PeeCee seems to be in trouble and she has become a target for Indian Income Tax Department. Recently, a notice has been sent to her regarding the irregularities which were found during the Income Tax raid conducted in 2011.

According to the Income Tax department, it is mandatory for the actress to pay tax on some luxury items she received as a gift. In 2011, the Income Tax department had raided the residence of Priyanka Chopra in connection with a case in Income Tax Appellate Tribunal concerning disproportionate assets.

When Priyanka was questioned about the LVMH-Tag watch of Rs 40 lakh value and Toyota Prius car of Rs 27 lakh value, she said that they are gifts from the company out of love, affection, and respect towards her. But her answer was rejected.

The Income-tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) shot down Chopra’s explanation that an LVMH-TAG watch worth Rs 40 lakh was a gift to her from the company selling it and not part of her professional income. A similar reasoning by her regarding a Toyota Prius car, valued at Rs 27 lakh, has also been refuted by the ITAT.

The I-T officer said, “A company is an artificial person and therefore does not have any emotional feeling of love and affection which are the cardinal factors for treating any transaction as a gift.” Both the items come under section 28(iv) of the Income-Tax (I-T) Act as per which taxable is, “the value of any benefit or perquisite (whether convertible into money or not), arising from business or exercise of the profession.”

As per the recent development, the actress has striked back at the authorities, said that why on earth should she pay for the free gifts she receives? After all, getting gifts has become a painful deed for PeeCee.

Following this, she had approached the appellate tribunal, which ordered that she would need to pay tax on anything she receives in a gift as a professional.

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