every visa renewal is a time of extreme anxiety and stress for me. every time they ask for something new or find something wrong in the contract, or some regulation changed. you have to deal with staff who are sometimes unfriendly or impatient, and god forbid you miss a deadline or apply to early. it never feels like routine. my renewal times always seem to fall into the summer months when the kids have school holidays. at least once or twice our holiday travel plans were thwarted because of that.
One just has to learn to use actual encrypted chat (better than WhatsApp), encrypted containers, and Monero with no-log VPNs. Let them search all they want.
Disclaimer: I strongly and truly believe that everyone should pay a reasonable percentage of tax on their entire income.
There is no proof of torture to get the passwords for tax purposes. Even if guilt is assumed by the court, it will be for failing to comply with the investigation, not for hiding untaxed money. I guarantee you that failing to incriminate oneself for tax purposes will result in a far smaller fine and/or imprisonment if that, than will actually evading taxes.
The article notes:
> if a person is found to be in possession or control of any books of account, or other documents and information maintained digitally, on computer systems, or stored electronically, then they must provide the designated income tax officer “reasonable technical and other assistance (including access code, by whatever name called) as may be necessary” to enable the officer to inspect “any information, electronic records and communication or data contained in or available on such computer systems”.
> “In most of the cases of search operation the taxpayers do not share the password/login credential of online forums/portals/e-mail accounts, etc.
As above, the article already notes that the taxpayers do not share the passwords.
Disclaimer: I strongly and truly believe that everyone should pay a reasonable percentage of tax on their entire income.
We coerce and force people to relinquish passwords here in the US all the time. If you go through anything related to the border, that's run-of-the-mill. They don't even need a warrant for most of it, your fingerprint can be coerced out of you legally.
If a US citizen does not unlock the phone when entering the US, the phone can be seized while they send it to the lab to unlock it, and that's about it.
If the phone gets unlocked, the border police cannot coerce unlocking specific apps at all, although a judge can. The border police may however choose to lie about it.
Do you think that if a large portion of people jumped through these hoops that governments would just throw their hands up and be like, "Oh no they got us guys time to pack it up"?
> if a person is found to be in possession or control of any books of account, or other documents and information maintained digitally, on computer systems, or stored electronically, then they must provide the designated income tax officer “reasonable technical and other assistance (including access code, by whatever name called) as may be necessary” to enable the officer to inspect “any information, electronic records and communication or data contained in or available on such computer systems”.
> “In most of the cases of search operation the taxpayers do not share the password/login credential of online forums/portals/e-mail accounts, etc.
The article does not note what will happen when the defendant does not share the info. It is the best interest of the defendant to not share the info. It is very possible that the defendant will incur a small fine for non-compliance instead of a big fine for tax evasion, so it's still a favorable outcome.
I am not there, but necessity is the mother of invention, even at a social level.
Regarding your xkcd link, they cannot detain and torture you if you immediately get a court judge to grant bail or to toss the case. Those who do shady business should stay prepared.
I'm from one of the most influential families in my state in India (the most educated in the country by the way), a (former) member of the ruling party in the state and living in one of the better parts of my district. And even I was detained by police for "loitering in the streets at night" (I had a midnight craving after being inordinately starved and my city shuts down at 9 pm). The only reason I did not spend a night in a jail cell was because I called my neighbour who called some local political honchos (not even my parents because they are utterly useless in such matters). All so that the police could wring a bribe out of me (which I ended up not paying). Meanwhile in other streets, drug peddlers run amok.
India is not for the faint-hearted, even for many Indians.
Not that I like the government of India, but that person was charged under Terrorism act of India not Income tax.
Patriot Act and it's variants in US, India, UK all of them can and likely do allow govts to do just about anything. I think other countries probably have similar issues.
It is sad, horrid and corrupt but that's the system we live in. Can't really do much about it other than try to protest or support repealing such laws.
That's for the actual case, but at least bail can be issued without delay if I am not mistaken. It's up to the private attorney to have experience in these matters.
The comment suggesting torture (via the xkcd link) is also a very big IF. There is no proof of the existence of torture for such routine investigations.
The article notes:
> if a person is found to be in possession or control of any books of account, or other documents and information maintained digitally, on computer systems, or stored electronically, then they must provide the designated income tax officer “reasonable technical and other assistance (including access code, by whatever name called) as may be necessary” to enable the officer to inspect “any information, electronic records and communication or data contained in or available on such computer systems”.
> “In most of the cases of search operation the taxpayers do not share the password/login credential of online forums/portals/e-mail accounts, etc.
The article does not note what will happen when the defendant does not share the info. It is the best interest of the defendant to not share the info. Going forward, it is very possible that the defendant will incur a small fine for non-compliance instead of a big fine for tax evasion, so it's still a favorable outcome. There is no proof of torture or even imprisonment.