‘Transparent Taxation,’ ‘Honoring the Honest’,

 

Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched the platform for ‘Transparent Taxation – Honoring the Honest’ via video conferencing aimed at easing compliance and expediting refunds, benefiting honest taxpayers. This launch will further carry forward the journey of direct tax reforms Hon’ble PM says the  tax system should be seamless, painless and faceless.  Three main features of the platform are faceless assessment, faceless appeal and tax payers’ charter.  In a major announcement, faceless assessment and taxpayer charter has been started from today, whereas faceless appeal will begin from Sep 25.  In view of the same the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has directed that all the assessment shall be passed by the National e-Assessment Centre through the Faceless Assessment Scheme, 2019. Now, the National e-Assessment Centre shall intimate the assessee for conduct of faceless assessment in case wherein notice has been issued by AO. The Board has also extended its scope to cover best judgment assessments. However, the board has provided two exception as well. Assessment orders in cases assigned to Central Charges & International Tax Charges.

Link for Faceless Assessment Notifications:

https://incometaxindia.gov.in/communications/notification/notification_60_2020.pdf

https://incometaxindia.gov.in/communications/notification/notification_61_2020.pdf

Link to taxpayer’s charter : https://incometaxindia.gov.in/Documents/taxpayer-charter.pdf

The CBDT has carried out several major tax reforms in direct taxes in the recent years. Last year the Corporate Tax rates were reduced from 30% to 22% and for new manufacturing units the rates were reduced to 15%. Dividend distribution Tax was also abolished. The focus of the tax reforms has been on reduction in tax rates and on simplification of direct tax laws. Several initiatives have been taken by the CBDT for bringing in efficiency and transparency in the functioning of the IT Department. This includes bringing more transparency in official communication through the newly introduced Document Identification Number (DIN) wherein every communication of the Department would carry a computer generated unique document identification number. Similarly, to increase the ease of compliance for taxpayers, IT Department has moved forward with prefilling of income tax returns to make compliance more convenient for individual taxpayers.