The government reorganizes the tax procedure
The government has assigned the task of strengthening modalities for anonymous income tax assessment and monitoring to a high-level panel on direct taxes.
“The terms of reference of the working group on direct taxes have been broadened,” a senior government official familiar with the development told ET. It will now consider anonymous or anonymous audit, review and evaluation.
The suggestion for a faceless and jurisdictional assessment and review had first come from an internal working group of the Central Council of Direct Taxes.
A faceless assessment or review would simply mean that a taxpayer would not have to interact in person with a tax officer. In addition, an assessment officer would not know the taxpayer whose files he is reviewing, relying heavily on the use of technology. The department is already doing the faceless treatment and issuing refunds through the Bangalore Treatment Center.
Faceless assessment and examination will greatly reduce corruption and also speed up processing.
The NDA government led by Narendra Modi, which unveiled several taxpayer-friendly measures during his previous term, gave the move high priority. The working group had until July 31 to submit its report.
The working group will examine a systemic verification mechanism for financial transactions.
The task force was also asked to look for ways to reduce the compliance burden on taxpayers, reduce litigation, the official said, as well as sharing information on various taxes such as the product tax and services, customs and the financial intelligence unit.
The working group, convened by CBDT member Akshilesh Ranjan, will now have Ritvik Pandey, co-secretary in the revenue department as a member. Former finance minister Arun Jaitley extended the task force’s mandate by two months in May. Chief Economic Advisor K Subramanian will also be a member of the working group. Former CEA Arvind Subramanian was a permanent special guest of the working group.
In November 2017, the Ministry of Finance set up the task force responsible for rewriting income tax laws to simplify them. He was responsible for developing new legislation taking into account the tax systems in force in various countries, international best practices and the economic needs of countries.