The income-tax (I-T) department has identified nearly 400,000 taxpayers who will be facing scrutiny under the new faceless assessment scheme.
Department has served notices to a little more than 100,000 assesses, asking explanation on the returns filed within a time frame of 15 days, said sources.
However, around 10,000 such letters were undelivered and, in some cases, letters bounced back. The deadline of reverting on scrutiny letters ends on September 30.
The tax department have put a computer-assisted scrutiny selection (CASS) cycle in place for the current year and has shortlisted about 100 parameters to analyse returns under the new system.
Sources reveal that some of the parameters, based on which notices were served, comprise of undisclosed foreign income and immovable properties, high-value transactions, non-reporting of long-term capital gains, TDS claim discrepancy with the tax forms, lack of clarity on investments made in the name of spouse, relatives, filing defective return, tax evasion in earlier years, and so on.
According to the action plan, the e-assessment will not be faceless initially, as the jurisdiction assessing officer will be aware about the profile of the assessee and can also go through it at the time of serving notices.
“For CASS 2019, the notices shall be generated and issued in a centralised manner by the prescribed tax authority, for cases selected for scrutiny. After the issuance of notices, further assessment proceedings shall be conducted by the jurisdictional assessing officer in a regular manner through Income-tax Business Application (ITBA),” according to the assessment module prepared by the I-T department.
A jurisdictional assessing officer can also log-in to the ITBA portal consisting of the profiles of assesses including PAN, ITR, TDS details, and details of order and so on.
An assessing officer is also mandated to verify the notices imposed and whether it has been delivered correctly . In cases where the notices remained undelivered, the officer will have to take a print out and send out a physical copy to the assesse concerned.
Moreover, if the returns are submitted to assessing officer who is not the jurisdictional AO, then the assesse permanent account number will be transferred to the jurisdictional AO on immediate effect.
