Skip to main content

Tax Sleuths May Try Paperless I-T Assessment over Emails

Pilots would be conducted in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Chennai for non-corporate cases; e-hearing would be held in 100 cases.
Scared of facing income tax officer? In a major initiative to address tax harassment, the authorities plan to do paperless income tax assessment over emails.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has rolled out a pilot project whereby e-hearing would be conducted in 100 cases.
“This would eliminate the necessity of visiting the income-tax offices by the taxpayers, particularly in smaller cases involving limited issues and where taxpayer is able to provide details required by the assessing officer without necessi tating his physical presence,“ the apex direct taxes body said in a directive to field officers.
Pilots would be conducted in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Chennai for non-corporate cases.
The NDA government has promised a `fair, predictable and stable' tax regime in the country.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, in an interaction with the CBDT chief and revenue secretary some time back, had emphasised the need to improve the department's interface with taxpayers, according to a government official privy to the deliberations.
He had suggested cutting down on physical interface of taxpayers with tax authorities as that itself is sometimes seen as harassment and switch over to e-hearing scenario. Tax experts welcomed the CBDT initiative.
“This is an encouraging and progressive step in line with the government's resolve to bring in transparency and to bridge the expectation gap between the taxpayers and the tax authorities,“ said Vikas Vasal, partner at KPMG in India. “A lot of time, cost and effort can be saved with the use of technology ,“ he said.
Vasal said that besides being an environment friendly measure, electronic assessments will help achieve consistency in tax positions and speedy dispute resolu tion. Tax authorities have overtime gained an image that they harass and terrorise taxpayers and the board has undertaken a number of efforts to shed that tag.It has already asked tax officials not to give multiple appointments to taxpayers for any interaction as also to avoid roving enquiry in case of a scrutiny.
The board is taking steps to develop a dedicated standardised platform for electronic-interface with taxpayers.
Cases selected for scrutiny based on information in annual information return or mismatch in tax deducted at source would be taken up as part of this exercise.
The Economic Times, New Delhi, 21st Oct. 2015

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

New income tax slab and rates for new tax regime FY 2023-24 (AY 2024-25) announced in Budget 2023

  Basic exemption limit has been hiked to Rs.3 lakh from Rs 2.5 currently under the new income tax regime in Budget 2023. Further, the income tax slabs in the new tax regime has been changed. According to the announcement, 5 income tax slabs will be there in FY 2023-24, from 6 income tax slabs currently. A rebate under Section 87A has been enhanced under the new tax regime; from the current income level of Rs.5 lakh to Rs.7 lakh. Thus, individuals opting for the new income tax regime and having an income up to Rs.7 lakh will not pay any taxes   The income tax slabs under the new income tax regime will now be as follows: Rs 0 to Rs 3 lakh - 0% tax rate Rs 3 lakh to 6 lakh - 5% Rs 6 lakh to 9 lakh - 10% Rs 9 lakh to Rs 12 lakh - 15% Rs 12 lakh to Rs 15 lakh - 20% Above Rs 15 lakh - 30%   The revised Income tax slabs under new tax regime for FY 2023-24 (AY 2024-25)   Income tax slabs under new tax regime Income tax rates under new tax regime O to Rs 3 lakh 0 Rs 3 lakh to Rs 6 lakh 5% Rs 6

Jaitley plans to cut MSME tax rate to 25%

Income tax for companies with annual turnover up to ?50 crore has been reduced to 25% from 30% in order to make Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) companies more viable and also to encourage firms to migrate to a company format. This move will benefit 96% or 6.67 lakh of the 6.94 lakh companies filing returns of lower taxation and make MSME sector more competitive as compared with large companies. However, bigger firms have shown their disappointment since the proposal for reducing tax rates was to make Indian firms competitive globally and it is the large firms that are competing globally. The Finance Minister foregone revenue estimate of Rs 7,200 crore per annum for this for this measure. Besides, the Finance Minister refrained from removing or reducing Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT), a popular demand from India Inc., but provided a higher period of 15 years for carry forward of future credit claims, instead of the existing 10-year period. “It is not practical to rem

Don't forget to verify your income tax return in August: Here's the process

  An ITR return needs to be verified within 120 days of filing of tax return. Now that you have filed your income tax return, remember to verify it because your return filing process is not complete unless you do so. The CBDT has reduced the time limit of ITR verification to 30 days (from 120 days) from the date of return submission. The new rule is applicable for the returns filed online on or after 1st August 2022. E-verification is the most convenient and instant method for verifying your ITR. However, if you prefer not to e-verify, you have the option to verify it by sending a physical copy of the ITR-V. Taxpayers who filed returns by July 31, 2023 but forget to verify their tax returns, will get the following email from the tax department, as per ClearTax. If your ITR is not verified within 30 days of e-filing, it will be considered invalid, and may be liable to pay a Late Fee. Aadhaar OTP | EVC through bank account | EVC through Demat account | Sending duly signed ITR-V through s