Claim: Starting 1st April 2026, the Income Tax Department will have the legal authority to access social media activity, emails, cloud data to curb tax evasion.
Conclusion: The claim is Misleading. Section 247 of the Income Tax Act 2025 does not grant blanket surveillance powers, but it extends existing search and seizure authority to digital formats for targeted investigations into or leading to serious tax evasion, without routine intrusion into taxpayers’ affairs/matters.
Rating: Misleading — 
Several social media users have shared claims about the Income Tax Department having full access to user’s social media, personal emails, digital platforms, etc, starting 1st April 2026 to detect and prevent tax evasion. This stems from interpretations of the Income Tax Bill 2025, which replaces the 1961 Act.
Facebook user ‘Sushant Army’ shared such a claim writing how “India’s upcoming Income Tax changes, effective April 1, 2026, are set to significantly expand the powers of tax authorities in the digital age.” View this post below: –
Another user on Instagram ‘researchinandout’ shared similar claim stressing how “Your DMs, emails, and social media won’t be “private” for tax evasion anymore.” View this post here:
FACT CHECK
DigitEYE India decided to investigate this claim and found that it is misleading. The claim mischaracterizes Section 247, which updates search and seizure provisions from the 1961 Act’s Section 132. This power is limited to Search and Survey Operations and is only applicable to those who are undergoing formal tax evasion charges, not on all taxpayers.
We first checked the official navigator document on The Income Tax India website to learn about the changes. On page 14 of 22, Section 247 under ‘search and seizure’ is the updated version of Section 132 of the 1961 Act, (The proposed section 247 in this new bill relates to expanded search and seizure powers for tax officials) clarifying roles like competent and approving authorities to prevent ambiguity.
The Section 249 corresponds to the non-disclosure of the reason as to why the person is apprehended and Section 251 outlines procedures for handling seized or requisitioned books/documents/assets/vessels. View a screenshot of the navigator below –
Next, we searched up the official Income Tax Bill 2025, effective 1 April 2025 to learn about Section 247 which modernizes and expands on Section 132 from the 1961 Income Tax Act. From the bill we learnt that Section 247(1)(b)(ii) authorizes officers to “require any person…to afford the authorised officer with such reasonable technical and other assistance (including access code, by whatever name called) as may be necessary” for inspection. This further extends to any information including books of account, documentation, electronic records and communication or data contained in or available on such computer systems. View a screenshot of this section information from page 276 of the document here 
Following this, Section 247(3) states that if “any Principal Chief Commissioner or Chief Commissioner or Principal Commissioner or Commissioner, in consequence of information in his possession, has reason to suspect…” the possession of undisclosed assets, action may be taken with the approval of the appropriate authority. Nowhere it is mentioned that such an investigation will be conducted on honest taxpayers or those who are not under scrutiny. View a screenshot of this section information from page 277 of the document here
When we checked for any official government clarification, PIB’s fact check unit had debunked this on X. In a post dated 22nd December, 2025, they stated that “powers cannot be used for routine information gathering/processing, or even for cases under scrutiny assessment. These measures are specifically designed to target black money and large-scale evasion during search and survey, not the everyday law-abiding citizen.”
A post by @IndianTechGuide claims that from April 1, 2026, the Income Tax Department will have the ‘authority’ to access your social media, emails, and other digital platforms to curb tax evasion.#PIBFactCheck
❌The claim being made in this post is #misleading! Here’s the real… pic.twitter.com/hIyPPcvALF
— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) December 22, 2025
Thus, the claim is misleading.
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