Alongside the broader Income-tax Act, 2025 rollout, the government introduced a targeted relief measure: retrospective immunity from prosecution — effective from 1 October 2024 — for non-disclosure of non-immovable foreign assets valued up to ₹20 lakh.
This is specifically aimed at taxpayers with modest overseas holdings — a foreign bank account balance from time spent working or studying abroad, a small brokerage or investment account, or similar — who may have missed the (often unfamiliar) disclosure requirements under India's foreign asset reporting rules without any intent to evade tax. It is not a blanket amnesty for larger or more deliberately structured offshore holdings, and it doesn't cover immovable property held abroad.
The distinction between 'non-immovable' assets and property matters here: a foreign bank account, a small shareholding, or a similar financial asset under the ₹20 lakh threshold is the kind of holding this scheme is built for. A foreign property, even a modest one, sits outside this specific relief.
For individuals or families with a member who has lived, worked, or studied abroad at any point, this is worth a genuine review — not because failing to disclose was necessarily a deliberate decision, but because these requirements are easy to miss entirely if nobody flagged them at the time.
The immunity is conditional on specific disclosure steps being taken correctly, not automatic simply because your holdings fall under the threshold. If this could apply to you or a family member, it's worth a direct conversation before assuming the relief applies without any action on your part.