On 15th July, Income Tax Department raided the house of a YouTuber identified as Mohammed Tasleem Khan based on the information provided by Bareilly Police. As per reports, police got an anonymous tip that Tasleem Khan, s/o Mauzam Khan, was earning lakhs using illicit means. Based on the tip, police raided his house located in village Milak Pichauda in the Nawabganj Police Station area on 15th July. During the raid, police found 24 lakhs in cash and some jewellery. The information was forwarded to the Income Tax department that reached Tasleem’s house for further investigation.
During questioning, Taslim informed police that he runs a YouTube channel called ‘Trading Hub 3.0’ with around 99,000 subscribers. He started the track in 2017 and provided information about the share market in his videos. Last year, Tasleem reportedly earned Rs 1.20 crore from YouTube and paid around 40 lakhs in taxes. He claimed that the money found at his house was the amount he got at his wedding six months ago. He got Rs 10 lakh for the wedding and withdrew Rs 9 lakh from the bank.
According to Lokmat News, sources from Income Tax Department said that Tasleem’s bank accounts were under the department’s radar. They found several discrepancies in his accounts. However, Tasleem’s family denied the claims and said all the money he earns goes to the bank. They further claimed there was no chance of any lapse in paying taxes as everything goes through banking.
OpIndia checked his channel, which goes by the TRADiNGhub handle on YouTube. The channel was started on 14th September 2018, and it has gathered over 45 lakh views in total which is significantly low in terms of money he claims to have earned in the last year. He also runs a Hindi channel by the name ‘Logic_Trading’ that has over 41,000 subscribers, and it was started in August 2022. The channel has gathered over 16 lakh views so far.
When we checked his Instagram channel, we found a link tradinghub[dot]taplink[dot]ws that took us to a page where he sells access to his private course that includes a Discord group.
He has included a video course, e-book, market tips, access to private groups, weekly private Webnair and 24×7 support in the package. The price of the package is USD 299 for a lifetime subscription. This is where things get away from YouTube. He claims to have a 2000+ Active Traders Community. Access to the group is available only after paying USD 299. It is safe to assume he has made USD 5,98,000 or over Rs 4 crore just by selling this package. This amount is separate from what he makes from YouTube.
Furthermore, he also runs Telegram channels in sync with his YouTube channels. While the English Telegram channel has over 38,000 subscribers, his Hindi Telegram channel has over 13,000 subscribers. On both telegram channels he promotes his course of $299.
He is also an active user of TradingView, a charting platform and social network for traders and investors worldwide. Interestingly, his account was suspended from socially interacting on the platform for violating the rules.
Though Tasleem has been working since 2018, he formed a company recently in April 2023. Tasleem and his brother Firoz Khan formed a company name Khan Digital Marketing Pvt Ltd.
The company accounts are used for accepting PayPal payments for the SMC package that we talked about earlier.
He also accepts payment in cryptocurrency via USDT, Bitcoin, Binance, and also via UPI. While UPI and PayPal payments are easy to trace, the other modes of payments, like cryptocurrency, are not.
IT Department raided YouTubers for tax evasion
This is not the first time YouTubers have come under IT Department’s radar. In June 2023, residences and workplaces of famous YouTubers were raided by IT officials. The raid unearthed tax evasion of approx Rs 25 crore. Vloggers, including actress and TV host Pearle Maaney, Sujith Bhaktan, Arjou, Jayaraj G Nath, Akhil and others, faced action by the IT Department. These vloggers were making Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore annually from creating content.
