Budget 2020 proposes Faceless Appeals in Income Tax Act

indirect tax -,Appeals - Taxscan

While presenting the Budget for 2020-21, the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that, the Income Tax Act will be amended to allow faceless appeals against tax orders on lines of faceless assessment.

The Government is committed to bringing in transformational changes so that maximum governance is provided with minimum government. In order to impart greater efficiency, transparency and accountability to the assessment process, a new faceless assessment scheme has already been introduced.

The Finance Minister said that there are 4,83,000 direct tax cases pending in various appellate forums i.e. Commissioner (Appeals), ITATs, High Courts and the Supreme Court. Referring to several measures taken to reduce tax litigations.

Presently, most of the functions of the Income Tax Department starting from the filing of the return, processing of returns, issuance of refunds and assessment are performed in the electronic mode without any human interface.

In order to take the reforms initiated by the Department to the next level and to eliminate human interface, Finance Minister proposed to amend the Income Tax Act so as to enable Faceless appeals on the lines of Faceless assessment.

This scheme is part of the government to reduce human interference in the assessment and scrutiny of tax returns that in turn could help to reduce chances of corruption. The finance minister had introduced an enabling provision for the scheme in the law through Finance Act of 2018.

The Finance Minister said that there are 4,83,000 direct tax cases pending in various appellate forums i.e. Commissioner (Appeals), ITATs, High Courts and the Supreme Court. Referring to several measures taken to reduce tax litigations.

To impart greater efficiency, transparency and accountability to the assessment process, a new faceless assessment scheme which is already been introduced. In order to take the reforms initiated by the Government to next level and to reduce human interface, the Finance Minister also proposed to amend the Income Tax Act so as to enable Faceless appeal on the lines of Faceless assessment.

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