Flipkart's co-founders Sachin and Binny Bansal get IT notice concerning capital gains

The latest reported curveball in the Flipkart game is notices served to the founders Sachin and Binny Bansal by the Income Tax department asking them to divulge the information regarding total income and capital gains they made through the Flipkart-Walmart deal.

When the deal took place, IT department had asked Walmart to reveal the details of 46 shareholders of Flipkart that were a part of the deal and provide the details regarding the amount each of them earned, and how much tax was deducted for the same at the source.

It had also asked Walmart to pay a withholding tax of about $2 billion and the US wholesale giant had paid Rs 7439.4 crore as retention tax in September this year. However, Indian IT still had qualms regarding 34 of the 44 shareholders still not having paid the concerning fee.

Last month, apart from the Bansals the notice has also been served to 35 other stakeholders who partook in the deal. Out of these 13 were investors in Flipkart. While few of the stakeholders have started responding to IT departments notices, the promoters are yet to communicate with the department.

The two Bansals who founded the firm together 11 years ago have both now resigned from their active roles in the firm. Sachin Bansal was the first to leave in May this year, right after the deal was finalised and now Binny Bansal also had to resign considering the allegations of sexual assault, lack of due diligence, and evidence of lapses in judgement against him.

Both the Bansals had owned more than 5 per cent stake in the firm each and were expected to make more than $1 billion each out of the deal. Now with Sachin Bansal having cut all ties and starting up his own VC firm with the money, he made through the very deal, and Binny Bansal being merely a board member in the firm, it becomes all the more important for them to resolve the tax concerns and avoid any more backlash.

The development was first reported by ET.