Online Course on Faceless Assessment

 Update : It is informed that the course described below is only meant for PCsIT and CCsIT posted in ReAC.

No officer below the ranks mentioned above may join the webinar.

Therefore, the joining link is being deleted from this blog.

DTRTI Delhi is going to conduct online training on Faceless Assessment on 28th and 29th September 2020 to familiarize the Assessing Officers and others with the new concept.

Vide communication dated 23.09.2020 it is mandatory for all new officers posted in ReAC to join the webinar.

Webinar Course on "FACELESS ASSESSMENT SCHEME" for officers in ReAC and NeAC  : Part-I 

Hosted by Ranu Mukharjee

Monday, Sep 28, 2020 11:00 am | 3 hours 15 minutes | (UTC+05:30) Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi

Agenda: 28.09.2020

11 A.M to 12.30 P.M : Introduction to the Faceless Assessment Scheme and its complete architecture by Sh.Ashish Abrol,CIT,NeAC

12.30 to 2.0 PM : Familiarization of work profile of Assessment Unit and Verification Unit in ReAC by Sh.Lakshmi Narayan,JCIT,AU-4(1),Delhi  

Faceless Appeals launched by CBDT

 The Income Tax Department today launched Faceless Income Tax Appeals. Under Faceless Appeals, all Income Tax appeals will be finalised in a faceless manner under the faceless ecosystem with the exception of appeals relating to serious frauds, major tax evasion, sensitive & search matters, International tax and Black Money Act. Necessary Gazette notification has also been issued today (25/09/2020).

It may be noted that Hon’ble PM on 13th August, 2020 while launching the Faceless Assessment and Taxpayers’ Charter as part of “Transparent Taxation - Honoring the Honest” platform, had announced launching of Faceless Appeals on 25th September, 2020 on the birth anniversary of Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhayay. Also, in recent years the Income Tax Department has carried out several reforms in Direct Taxes for the simplification of tax processes and for ease of compliance for the taxpayers.

Under the Faceless Appeals, from now on, in income tax appeals, everything from e-allocation of appeal, e-communication of notice/ questionnaire, e-verification/e-enquiry to e-hearing and finally e-communication of the appellate order, the entire process of appeals will be online, dispensing with the need for any physical interface between the appellant and the Department. There will be no physical interface between the taxpayers or their counsel/s and the Income Tax Department. The taxpayers can make submissions from the comfort of their home and save their time and resources.

The Faceless Appeals system will include allocation of cases through Data Analytics and AI under the dynamic jurisdiction with central issuance of notices which would be having Document Identification Number (DIN). As part of dynamic jurisdiction, the draft appellate order will be prepared in one city and will be reviewed in some other city resulting in an objective, fair and just order. The Faceless Appeal will provide not only great convenience to the taxpayers but will also ensure just and fair appeal orders and minimise any further litigation. The new system will also be instrumental in imparting greater efficiency, transparency and accountability in the functioning of the Income Tax Department.

As per data with CBDT, as on date there is a pendency of almost 4.6 lakh appeals at the level of the Commissioner (Appeals) in the Department. Out of this, about 4.05 lakh appeals, i.e., about 88 % of the total appeals will be handled under the Faceless Appeal mechanism and almost 85% of the present strength of Commissioners (Appeals) shall be utilised for disposing off the cases under the Faceless Appeal mechanism.

Source : Press Information Bureau.

Whether ITO promotion is loosing it's sheen ?

 To be an Income Tax Officer had been a dream to many of the young officials of the department. Every year thousands of employees prepare themselves for departmental exams to fulfill their ambition to be a gazetted officer of the department. 

Recently we have noticed some deviation to this trend. Some Inspectors are refusing promotion to the post of ITOs. In this month as many as six Inspectors in Bengaluru declined to get promoted in one go. It is quite unprecedented.

Now, the question is, why this is happening ? To be an ITO from clerical level needs to qualify three departmental exams and at least 15 to 20 years of waiting. Still everybody after qualifying is not accepting the promotion. One of the reason may be the poor increase in remuneration against inviting a lot of responsibility. After the introduction of MACP scheme, to get a promotion or not matters little in term of monetary benefit. The promotional benefit is also reduced now. If an Inspector gets promoted to ITO, he looses Petrol Allowance and invites the possibility of being transferred out of the metropolis and thus getting his HRA reduced. What he will earn instead ? A huge burden of responsibility and effectively less take home pay at the beginning. In the present scenario of  faceless assessment, the workload may not be anticipated right now.

So the time has come to take steps to get the benefits and perks revised to the officer. Otherwise in the long run there will be very less people available to be promoted to the once prize post, and remember ITOs can not be recruited but have to be promoted.

Physical hearing under faceless assessment scheme ?

 The Income Tax department is framing rules to enable physical hearing in case there is addition, either in tax or income, for taxpayers under the faceless assessment scheme, a senior official said.

“Wherever there is addition proposed - either to income or tax - a showcause notice will be issued and final opportunity will be given to taxpayers and reply will be taken into consideration,” SK Gupta, member of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), said during a webinar on Wednesday. 

“If physical hearing through video conferencing is required, we can allow that; the rules are being made,” he said, referring to the government’s recent reforms related to faceless tax assessment.

Gupta added that the process of issuing penalties on a faceless basis was in the works, and would be brought into effect once faceless appeals – to be launched from Sep 25 – gets off the ground and teething troubles are settled.

Guidelines for physical verification are also being framed within faceless assessment since there have been cases where the taxpayer’s premises have not been traceable or where the taxpayer was not replying to communication from the department, he said.

The jurisdiction of the assessee’s location will be used instead of the tax authority’s location in cases where the authorities need to refer to a position of law, Gupta clarified when asked about the rule that the assessing officer will follow in faceless assessments since assessees and taxpayers are not in the same geographical location.

India introduced faceless tax assessments on a pilot basis in October 2019, taking up about 58,000 cases.

However, of those selected, there was no response from taxpayers in over 22,000 cases, which was a worrying trend, Gupta said.

“In over 13,000 cases, orders have been passed and in less than 500 cases show cause notices have been issued, but in over 22,000 cases no response has been received, and in fact in 6,000 cases emails have bounced back,” he said.

Gupta requested the corporate sector as well as taxpayers to respond to emails and text messages by the tax department, saying taxpayers should not block emails from the department and provide the latest contact information – including mobile phone numbers – to enable smooth assessments.

“We have decided yesterday that we may send postal or hard copy letters to taxpayers to educate on this issue in a centralised manner,” he added.

In the transformation to faceless assessment,  about 53% of the 40,000 income tax officers will be involved across assessment, technical and legal units.

Although there has been some discomfort among tax officers regarding the change, Gupta said that officers were being brought on board through training and awareness programmes.

Read more at:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/income-tax-dept-framing-rules-to-enable-physical-hearing-under-faceless-assessment-scheme/articleshow/78163633.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

The blog is live again !

 We sincerely apologize the inconvenience caused to our readers, well wishers and most importantly the Income Tax family as we could not update the blog for a long time.

In the meantime the department's normal functioning was deeply hampered due to lockdown and pandemic. But the Govt. has made historical reform in this period. Assessment has been made completely faceless. Even the ongoing assessments have been taken to the new domain. 

One of the coercive measure, "Survey" has been deleted from most of the Income Tax authorities. Only Intl. Taxation, TDS and Investigation wings are empowered to carry on survey and that too in a very limited window.

The complete hierarchy is changed. Most of the officers and staff  have been diverted in ReAC and NeAC. The new charges are yet to set up and the assessment function is completely stalled now.

We invite comments from our esteemed readers about the change, it's pros and cons. 

We will inform you any new happenings in the regard as before.

Thank you for being with us and hope your cooperation in the future.