India has launched a new disclosure window offering small taxpayers a limited amnesty period to regularise undeclared overseas assets, aiming to boost compliance and reduce penalties under the country’s black money law.
India has opened a new disclosure window for small taxpayers with undeclared overseas assets, adding a limited amnesty-style route for people who want to regularise foreign income or property before facing the harsher penalties attached to the country’s black money law. According to the Indian government’s tax rules and recent budget guidance, the Foreign Assets of Small Taxpayers Disclosure Scheme, 2026 is intended as a time-bound compliance measure for eligible residents with modest undeclared holdings abroad.
Under the scheme, taxpayers with undisclosed foreign assets or income worth up to one crore rupees can come forward and settle their liabilities at a fixed cost. India’s tax department says the amount payable is 30% of the value of the undeclared asset or income, plus a further sum equal to 100% of that tax. The disclosure window is designed as a one-off opportunity for smaller taxpayers, rather than a broad settlement for large offshore holdings.
The move sits alongside India’s existing Black Money Act, which already imposes a 30% tax on undisclosed foreign income and assets and can bring heavy penalties and even imprisonment for non-disclosure. Tax advisers cited by PwC and other firms say the new scheme offers a narrower, six-month route to self-correction, with the aim of reducing both administrative friction and the risk of prosecution for those who qualify. The Times of India reported that the government is pitching it as a fresh compliance drive almost a decade after India’s earlier foreign-asset disclosure window.
Guidance reviewed by tax specialists also suggests the scheme may be attractive to resident taxpayers who missed reporting foreign accounts, securities or other overseas holdings in past returns. ClearTax and TaxTMI both note that the regime is meant to cover previously untaxed or unreported foreign assets, while keeping the eligibility threshold capped at an aggregate value of one crore rupees. For India, the latest amnesty marks a practical attempt to widen compliance without reopening the door to the kind of larger offshore evasion cases that have long drawn the toughest sanctions.
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