Faceless Income Tax Assessment Scheme: Here's All You Need To Know!

In an effort to make the Indian tax system seamless and painless, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 13^th August 2020 has unveiled the faceless tax scrutiny and appeal and has urged people to pay their due taxes while contributing to the nation. While the faceless appeal is going to be applicable from September 25, the faceless assessment and taxpayer charter has come into force from 13^th August itself, stated the Prime Minister. & quot Amidst all these efforts, the number of people filing income tax returns has increased by about two and a half crores in the last 6-7 years. But it is also true that in a country of 130 crores it is still very less,& quot said the Prime Minister. & quot Out of all the tax returns in the year 2012-13, there was scrutiny of 0.94%. In the year 2018-19, this figure has come down to 0.26%. This indicates that the scrutiny of the case has reduced by almost 4 times,& quot PM added.

What is the Faceless Income Tax Assessment?

The idea behind introducing the faceless assessment is to remove the human interaction between the taxpayer and the Income Tax Department. The faceless tax scrutiny and appeal will help in easing the burden of taxpayer's compliance and increase fairness and objectivity in the tax system, stated the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. She further stated, “ It eases compliance burden, it brings in a fair objective and a just system, there shall not be any physical interface between the department and the taxpayer and to an extent, it shall bring in the certainty of information.” Here are some of the key features of the faceless income tax assessment scheme:

• Selection of a taxpayer is done through system using data analytics and artificial intelligence

• Abolition of territorial jurisdiction

• Automated random allocation of cases

• Central issuance of notices with the document identification number (DIN)

• No physical interaction and need to visit income tax office

• Team-based assessment and review

• Draft assessment order in one city, review in another and finalization in the third city.

However, there are certain exceptions to this, such as cases related to serious frauds, major tax evasion, sensitive and search matters, international tax, Black Money Act and Benami Property.