What is a faceless assessment scheme under income tax

Taxpayers have to deal with harassment from tax authorities from time to time, thus the government has instituted an anonymous income tax assessment for their advantage. If there was an error on the return or there was a dispute over-regulation, the assessee was required to attend the I-T department office. Income tax assessments are now more transparent, efficient, and accountable because of the Faceless Assessment Scheme adopted by the Central Government. In this article, you will understand all about faceless assessment schemes under income tax.

What is a Faceless Income Tax Assessment?

The government has initiated the method or new procedure known as faceless income tax assessment since Prime Minister Modi had declared that income tax filing and disputes should not necessitate actual interaction with an official. As a result, this project began on October 7th, 2019. All 58,319 cases were allocated online and are not restricted to one jurisdiction.

Thus, In the event of a faceless assessment, the Income Tax Act and Income Tax return filing Rules shall govern the process of calculating tax and tax assessment.

To determine the scope of a faceless assessment, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) looks at a variety of factors, including the territorial region, individual taxpayers, groups of individual taxpayers, levels of income, types of income, and specific instances or classes of cases.

The CBDT also established the “centers” and “units” and designated their respective jurisdictions in order to conduct anonymous assessments.

What is the Faceless IT Assessment’s Procedure?

For the faceless IT assessment system, the National e-Assessment Center, Delhi, will be the only regulating body. Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad, and Bengaluru will serve as the authority’s regional hubs. The stepwise procedure for a faceless assessment scheme under Income Tax is as follows:

The notification will be published by the National e-Assessment Center.
A response from the recipient is expected within 15 days.
The Regional Electronic Assessment Center (REAC) will designate an official to oversee the case in the Assessment Unit.
Once this is done, NEAC will interact with the assessee, verification team, and technical team
They shall provide NEAC with the relevant unit data.
All of this data will be gathered by NEAC and sent to REAC.
REAC will write an evaluation order after reviewing all of the data.
Data will be forwarded to the NEAC for review.
The fine will be imposed and the assessee will have an opportunity to present his side of the story.

Benefits to Taxpayers of a Faceless Income Assessment under Income Tax

There was a rise in corruption charges since taxpayers had to attend the department’s office for examination prior to this change. As a result, a faceless evaluation becomes necessary. The assessee does not have to appear in front of any authority to make a complaint while using this electronic approach.

There’s no need to see an official or a tax expert; the system has your back. When you need help, you can call the department at your residence. The answer to the assessee’s question will be sent to his or her registered email address. All replies will be made available online, and there will be no need to approach an official.

Using cutting-edge digital technology, the government has developed a risk management system. There will be no human interaction or little interference from the IRS thanks to the Automated Examination Tool, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning. It may be used at any time and in any place. Transparency and efficiency are two major benefits of faceless tax assessments. Since more than 99 percent of ITRs are already filed electronically, the method will make it simpler to evaluate the ITRs that are under scrutiny.

The faceless procedure will speed up the job of honest taxpayers and make it easier to identify dishonest ones.