What is faceless income tax assessment scheme? Key things to know

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his video conference on "Transparent Taxes - Honoring the Honest", announced the launch of Faceless Assessment, Faceless Appeal, and Taxpayers Charter. While the Faceless Assessment and the Taxpayers Charter will come into effect today, Faceless Appeal will be available begin from September 25.

Under the government's Faceless Appeals system, appeals will be assigned randomly to any office across the country, and the identity of the officer deciding on the appeal will remain unknown. Also, decisions will be based on the team.

"Until now, all tax-related matters in a city are dealt with by the Income Tax Department of that city, and IT officers of that city play an important role. Now, using technology, the scrutiny will be performed by randomly chosen IT officer who is randomly chosen anywhere in the country," said PM".

Here are the features of Faceless Appeals System:

• Appeals to be randomly assigned to any officer in the country.
• The identity of the officers who decide to appeal will be unknown.
• The taxpayer will not be required to visit an income tax office or an employee.

• The appellate decision will be team-based and reviewed.

Exceptions to Faceless Appeal

Exceptions to Faceless Appeal include serious frauds, high tax evasion, and sensitive matters and investigation. The system also excludes international taxation, the Black Money Act, and Benami property.

Narendra Modi said during the video conference that the goal is to make the ITR filing system smooth, painless, and faceless.

The prime minister also urged citizens to take responsibility and pay their taxes.

"Amid all these efforts, the number of people filing income tax returns has increased by roughly two and a half crores in the last 6-7 years. But it is also true that in a country of 130 crores it is still very less," said the Prime Minister.

Also Read: PM Modi launches Transparent Taxation platform to benefit honest taxpayers