#ScamAlert AltNews doing income tax fraud!
AltNews is run by Pravda Media Foundation which is a company registered under section 8 of companies act. This section is for registering "Not for profit" companies
It's a section that is specifically made for charitable orgs. It has many advantages like exemption from income tax, stamp duty, etc
There is however a very important condition, that no member i.e. share holder/promoter of such company can draw a salary or take profit as dividend. Pravda Media Foundation managing director Nirhari Sinha is 50% share holder with 2500 shares
Pratik Sinha, son of Nirhari, is also a director in Pravda. Although not a share holder, Pratik draw salaries under multiple heads from Pravda as a director, editor.
Firstly, Nirhari is NOT allowed to draw any salary.
Secondly, her son is a director drawing salary so it falls under "related party transactions"
This is the modus operandi of the fraud.
Nirhari is earning her dividend via Pratik's salary.
In the year 2019-20, Pratik Sinha and Nirhari Sinha have together drawn more than 30 lacs from Pravda, up from 26 lacs in 2018-19.
It doesn't make any sense why run a section 8 not for profit company and then draw such high salary as 30L in a year. This was supposed to be a charitable organisation.
Why not register as an NGO instead? Because there is a limit of 20% admin expenses/salaries!
They also claim their donors get tax relief under 80G. However, a search in income tax portal does not give their name in exemption list. For comparison, the wire's (foundation for independant journalism) name does show up!
It is an appeal to @IncomeTaxIndia to investigate:
1) can a media company be registered as a charitable entity under section 8?
2) do Pravda donors get 80G exemption?
3) Related party transaction of Nirhari n Pratik
4) Share holder Nirhari drawing remuneration
5) FCRA violations
Critical inputs for this thread have been provided by @AgentVinod03 and @Sahil_k90
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