From Gmail To Instagram DMs: What Income Tax Officers Can Check From April 2026, Check Full List Here

Income Tax rules in India are going to change on a drastic level and that also poses a threat to the privacy of the users. Starting from April 1, 2026, the income tax department of India will authorise

the officers to access the bank accounts, social media profiles, cloud storage, and emails of the citizens to keep a thorough check on income tax evasion, if anyone is practicing that. Until now, the officers were only allowed to go through to physical assets, and this is happening for the first time that they will have the authority to infiltrate the digital space as well.All searches related to the same in India are conducted under Section 132 of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Under the provision, the officers are allowed to raid and seize physical assets of people, like property, documents, jewellery, cash, and more. According to the proposed law, tax officers will be authorised to access what the bill calls 'virtual digital space.' This consists of email account, cloud storage, digital wallets, trading platforms, social media, and investment platforms.

Why The Change Is Being Made?

As per the government, a lot of money has moved online, and most of the transactions in the country are happening via digital platforms. Whether we talk about crypto assets or trading accounts, tracking financial activity online could reveal the whole digital footprint of a person. According to the authorities, the old methods have no power and are not even efficient in the current landscape. Now, the main point to consider here is that the government officials cannot randomly select a person and access their digital data. Digital access to any account will ask for a reason to believe, just like the old process. This clearly means that the data of the taxpayers will be safe and unaccessible until they are found guilty of something that involves financial anomalies.