Income tax e-assessment: Taxpayers with no PAN or e-filing account not eligible

NEW DELHI : A taxpayer, who does not have an e-filing account or PAN card, will not be eligible for the e-assessment system of the income tax department, CBDT said today in a statement. Finance Ministry’s ambitious e-assessment system for income tax payers is all set to launch next month.

The CBDT has mentioned few cases where e-assessment system is not applicable for certain taxpayers. If a tax official has already conducted raids, that case will not be covered under the e-assessment system. The instances categorised under ‘extraordinary circumstances’ will also not come under the income tax department’s e-assessment system either, said CBDT in a statement.

The assessees, who are part of the e-assessment system, will be “required to produce their response, evidence to any notice, communication or show cause issued by the assessing officer (AO) electronically through their e-filing account on the official portal of the department,” said CBDT.

All the e-assessment communication and notices to the taxpayers will have an unique document identification number (DIN). The aim is to make the entire process transparent and seamless.

CBDT added that e-assessment cases there can even be instances where a “personal hearing or attendance” of the taxpayer is required.

Those instances will be: where books of accounts have to be examined, where the taxman has invoked provisions of section 131 (power regarding discovery, production of evidence) of the I-T Act, where examination of witness is required to be made by the assessee or the department and where a show cause notice contemplating any adverse view is issued by the assessing officer and assessee requests through for personal hearing to explain the matter.

The CBDT has already set up the National e-assessment Centre in Delhi for the faceless and nameless assessment for income tax payers. The NeAC will have 16 officials and will be headed by a Principal Chief Commissioner of Income-tax (PCCIT). It will be an independent office for e-assessment.

First, the NeAC will serve notices to assessees specifying the reason behind the selection of a particular case. The assessee must send a response within 15 days. Then, the Centre will allocate the case to an assessing officer using an automated system.

[“source=livemint”]