Assessment and Appeal are prominent parts of Income Tax Act and required involvement of both assessee and departmental officers. Till 2019, the process of assessment and appeal was completely manual and entire proceedings required face to face interaction of both parties multiple times. However, this practice was adversely hampering integrity of departmental officers and transparency in assessment/appeal proceedings.
To overcome the issues of non-integrity, non-transparency and to promote digitalisation and bring efficiency, the government implemented “E-Assessment Scheme, 2020” i.e. faceless assessments scheme vide notification No. 61/2019 dated 12th September, 2019. However, all the assessment proceedings were not covered under such a scheme.
To cope up and make the tax system hassle free and transparent, our honourable Prime Minister in his recent speech came with a great initiative where he announced that now India has a new tax system which aims to be seamless, painless and faceless. He urges people to introspect and come forward to pay Income Tax.
Main concern of the Government is making every law and policy people centric and public friendly rather than power centric. For this Government launched a platform for “Transparent Taxation- Honouring the Honest” aimed at bringing transparency in the income tax system and empowering the taxpayers. Therefore, Scheme of “E-assessment” was replaced with “Faceless Scheme” vide notification No. 60/2020 and 61/2020 dated 13th August, 2020.
Referring to the faceless system, he said there is no need for direct contact between Taxpayer and Income Tax officer in all matters of scrutiny, notice, survey or assessment.
Let us discuss each one in detail:
Section 143(3A)/(3B)/(3C) of Income Tax Act vest power in Central Government to make a scheme by notification for the purpose of making assessment to impart greater efficiency, transparency and accountability. This scheme can cover assessment under section 143(3) or Section 144 of Income Tax Act.
Section 143(3A) authorises to frame scheme through:
By purview of Section 143(3A), Central Government notified E-assessment Scheme, 2019 vide N/No. 61/2019 dated 12th September, 2019. On 07.10.2019, E-assessment scheme was launched with the inauguration of the National E-assessment Centre (called NeAC).
However, there were still various assessments which were outside the purview of the “E-assessment Scheme” and therefore, the main purpose of no interaction between department officers and assessee was not getting solved. To overcome shortcomings of “E-Assessment Scheme”, the government amended such scheme with “Faceless Assessment Scheme” vide notification No. 60/20202 dated 13th August, 2020.
Faceless assessment is a “big step in reducing Department’s interference from people’s lives” and ensures speedy assessment of cases. Further, another major cause is that the I-T department has been progressively reducing the percentage of cases picked up for scrutiny assessment so as to establish the fact that the department places trust on the taxpayer.
Now after the introduction of such scheme, except some cases (like survey and International Tax cases) all assessments will be covered where both Assessing officer and assessee will not be knowing each other. The taxpayer will not require to know where his assessing officer is seated and neither the assessing officer will get to know where the assessee is situated.
For the purpose of successful implementation of Faceless Assessment, board has set-up following:
フェイスレス評価スキームの手続きの詳細はこちら
フェイスレス評価スキームの目的において-
(a) 全国電子評価センター（NeAC）と納税者、その代理人、またはその他の者との間のすべての通信は、電子手段のみを用いて行われるものとし、
(b) 全国電子評価センター、地域電子評価センター、および各ユニット間のすべての内部通信は、電子手段のみを用いて行われるものとします。
*NeACは、評価を行う権限を有し、一元的な方法で電子評価手続きの実施を促進します。
改正スキームの目的において、電子記録は以下によって認証されるものとします-
(i) 全国電子評価センターによる電子署名の付与、および
(ii) 納税者またはその他の者が、電子署名または電子検証コードを用いて所得申告書を提出する必要がある場合、その者による電子署名の付与。
1. 電子チャネル利用の増加：
本スキーム導入前は、評価命令案に修正が提案される場合、評価を完了すべきでない理由を説明するよう求める通知（ショーコーズ・ノーティス）を発行することで、納税者に弁明の機会が与えられていました。納税者またはその代理人は、口頭での意見陳述や主張を行うために、対面での聴聞を要請することができました。
フェイスレス評価スキーム導入後の現在、手続きが行われている当局は、対面聴聞の要請が承認された場合、ビデオ通話に対応した通信アプリケーションソフトウェアの使用を含め、ビデオ会議を通じてのみ聴聞を実施するものとし、委員会が定める手続きに従うものとします。
2. 自動割り当てシステムを通じて評価ユニットが割り当てられるため、管轄という概念は撤廃されました。納税者は管轄の税務当局（AO）を訪問する必要はありません。例：納税者がデリー州の居住者であっても、評価ユニットがカルナータカ州に割り当てられる可能性があります。
3. 精査対象の案件は、自動割り当てシステムを通じて選定されます。
4. すべての詳細は電子的に共有されるため、納税者と評価官の物理的な接触はありません。
Department has made an effort to digitise the appeal process also with effect from 25.09.2020.
Appeal will be allotted to officers on a random basis and taxpayers will not need to visit offices or meet any officials. The identifiers of the officers deciding the appeal will remain unknown. The facility of faceless appeal will be available for citizens across the country from 25th September 2020.
By launching these platforms “Transparent Taxation – Honoring the Honest” will incentivise taxpayers to be more honest and transparent in their filings and lead to gradual rise in the direct tax collections. They will enjoy the benefits of relatively less documentation and greater ease of compliance, increased liquidity and flexibility of investment choices. Faceless assessments and appeals will give confidence to the taxpayer of fairness and fearlessness.
Income Tax Department aims at keeping a watch on consumption and investment pattern of assessee and wants to collect maximum information related to incomes to avoid tax evasion. For this purpose, the Department has proposed to expand the scope of reporting under SFT by adding various transactions such as payment of insurance premium, health premium etc.
Details of Specified financial Transaction can be accessed here.
A Taxpayer’s Charter is supposed to safeguard the rights of a taxpayer. The taxpayers' charter announced in the Budget 2020-21 by inserting section 119A with effect from 01.04.2020 to empower CBDT to adopt and declare a taxpayer’s charter and empower citizens by ensuring time-bound services by the Income-Tax Department. It emphasized that there is an urgent need for the creation of a trust-based tax environment. The FM announced that a Taxpayer’s Charter shall be enshrined in the income-tax law. She proposed to amend the provisions of the Income-tax Act to mandate the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to adopt a Taxpayers’ Charter.
Here's what the taxpayer charter says about its commitment to taxpayers.
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