How to Report Benami Property and Claim the Informant Reward

Spotted a flat, plot or farmhouse bought in a relative or employee name to hide the real owner black money? You can report it and earn up to Rs 1 crore, but only if you use the one official channel the law actually recognises. There is no slick report benami website. The reward goes only to informants who file the prescribed Annexure-A form with a Benami Prohibition Unit. This guide shows you exactly how.

Benami property is property bought by one person but held in another person name, where the real owner pays and enjoys it while the name-lender, the benamidar, only fronts. It is used to park unaccounted money, dodge creditors or evade tax. The arrangement itself is an offence.

The governing law is the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988, given real teeth by the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016, which renamed the Act and made it enforceable from 1 November 2016. Enforcement sits with Benami Prohibition Units (BPUs) inside the Income-tax Department Investigation Directorates.

Rewards for informants flow from the Benami Transactions Informants Reward Scheme, 2018, notified by the CBDT. Under it a person can get a reward up to Rs 1 crore for specific, verifiable information on benami property whose fair market value exceeds Rs 1 crore. The reward is two-stage: an interim reward up to 1 percent of the value, capped at Rs 10 lakh per property, and a final reward up to 5 percent of the value confiscated under the Act. The informant identity is kept strictly confidential, and even foreigners are eligible.

For the wrongdoer, the consequences are severe. The property can be provisionally attached under section 24, adjudicated and held benami under section 26, and confiscated and vested in the Central Government free of all encumbrances under section 27. Prosecution under section 53 carries rigorous imprisonment of not less than one year extending to seven years, plus a fine that may reach 25 percent of the property fair market value.

1. Identify jurisdiction. Note where the benami property is physically located. The right office is the Benami Prohibition Unit having jurisdiction over that area.
2. Find the officer. The contact is the Joint Commissioner or Additional Commissioner of Income-tax (Benami Prohibition) at the Investigation Directorate covering that district. The local Income-tax office or the Principal Director of Income-tax (Investigation) can point you to the correct BPU.
3. Ask for Annexure-A. Tell the officer you wish to give information under the Benami Transactions Informants Reward Scheme 2018. The officer issues you the prescribed Annexure-A form. This step is what converts a tip into a reward-eligible claim.
4. Fill and sign it. Enter the property details, the benamidar, the suspected real owner, the source of the money and your supporting evidence. Sign it.
5. Submit and get your Informant Code. Hand the completed Annexure-A to the officer. You receive a confidential Informant Code, which is how you are tracked and rewarded without your name being exposed.
6. Foreign informants: if you are outside India, contact Member (Investigation), CBDT, North Block, New Delhi by email at [email protected], marking a copy to [email protected].
7. Cooperate during inquiry. The BPU investigates, attaches and adjudicates. Interim and final rewards follow the stages of attachment and confiscation.

• Exact address and survey or plot number of the property.
• Name of the benamidar, the person holding it on paper.
• Name of the suspected beneficial owner and your basis for believing it.
• Evidence the consideration was paid by someone other than the registered holder.
• Sale deed, mutation entries, bank trails, cash payments or any document trail you can point to.
• Approximate fair market value, since the reward and the Rs 1 crore threshold turn on it.
• Your own identity and bank details, kept confidential under the Scheme.

• Sending a WhatsApp, SMS, email, phone or social-media tip and expecting a reward. Casual tips do not qualify. Only the signed Annexure-A route under the 2018 Scheme earns any reward.
• Hunting for an online report benami portal. There is no public self-service benami complaint portal. The genuine channel is the BPU officer who issues Annexure-A. Do not trust any site claiming otherwise.
• Reporting property worth under Rs 1 crore and expecting the headline reward. The reward up to Rs 1 crore applies where fair market value exceeds Rs 1 crore.
• Approaching the wrong office. Jurisdiction follows where the property is situated, not where you live. Going to a random tax office can stall your claim.
• Giving vague allegations with no evidence. The Scheme rewards specific information actionable under the Act, and section 53 governs the offence. Unsupported suspicion is not actionable.
• Revealing yourself publicly. Your confidentiality is protected only within the BPU process; airing it on social media destroys that protection.

No. There is no public self-service portal. You report by obtaining and filing the Annexure-A form with the Joint or Additional Commissioner (Benami Prohibition) for the area where the property is located.

Up to Rs 1 crore, where the property fair market value exceeds Rs 1 crore. It is paid in two stages: an interim reward up to 1 percent, capped at Rs 10 lakh per property, and a final reward up to 5 percent of the value confiscated.

No. The Benami Transactions Informants Reward Scheme 2018 keeps the informant identity strictly confidential, and you are tracked only by an Informant Code.

Yes. Foreigners are eligible. A foreign informant should email Member (Investigation), CBDT, North Block, New Delhi at [email protected] with a copy to [email protected].

No. Only the prescribed Annexure-A submission earns a reward. A WhatsApp message, SMS, email, phone call or social-media post does not qualify, however useful the information.

The property can be attached under section 24, held benami and adjudicated under section 26, and confiscated under section 27. The offender faces prosecution under section 53: rigorous imprisonment of one to seven years plus a fine up to 25 percent of fair market value.

RTI is for getting information from public authorities, not for reporting an offence. You can use RTI to check land records or mutation entries that build your evidence, but the benami report itself must go through Annexure-A. See the RTI Act, 2005.

Contact your local Income-tax office or the Principal Director of Income-tax (Investigation) for your region; they will direct you to the BPU and the Joint or Additional Commissioner (Benami Prohibition) holding jurisdiction over the property location.

• Build a clean information request to trace land records with the AI RTI Drafter.
• Track statutory reply and appeal deadlines using the RTI Timeline Calculator.
• Learn the full information-rights toolkit in The RTI Playbook.
• Understand your underlying rights in the RTI Act, 2005.

• PIB, New Benami Transactions Informants Reward Scheme 2018 launched by the Income Tax Department
• Income Tax Department, Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act 1988
• The Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act 1988 (India Code)