Bollywood superstar and Indian icon Amitabh Bachchan reportedly paid over US$130,700 (about 10 million Indian rupees) in goods and services tax (GST) toward the sale of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in November of last yearaccording to local media reports.
Bachchan’s NFTs, which are available on the beyondlife.club platformreportedly sold for about US$966,000 in an auction organized by Beyondlife, a venture between Rhiti Entertainment and GuardianLink.io, and would attract 18% GST.
The collection included the ‘Madhushala’ NFT collection, narrations by the actor of the poems written by his father Harivansh Rai Bachchan, and vintage posters featuring seven autographed posters, among others.
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India’s tax authorities began investigations and sent out tax evasion notices to investors trading in cryptocurrencies and NFTs, after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed changes to the Income Tax Act, bringing NFTs under its fold as virtual digital assets.
An email seeking response from Indian tax authorities outside of local office hours was not answered at the time of publication. An email sent to Bachchan’s public relations firm went unanswered.
This is not the first time Bachchan finds himself in the crosshairs of the tax department. In 2010, he declared his profession as that of a farmer when purchasing land in his home state of Uttar Pradesh, to comply with local laws requiring a change in the use of the land for cultivation. Agriculturists do not need to pay tax on farm-based income.
Several Bollywood actors and celebrities including Salman Khan and Manish Malhotra and sportspersons Zaheer Khan and Rishabh Pant have invested in the NFT marketplace, hoping to crack gold by auctioning items on NFT platforms.