New Delhi, Pawan Jaiswal. Prime Minister Modi made several announcements on Thursday in order to make the income tax system easier and reduce the tax department’s fear of the taxpayers. The Prime Minister has announced major income tax reforms such as Faceless Assessment, Taxpayer Charter and Faceless Appeal. At the same time, the PM also launched a new income tax platform ‘Transparent Taxation, Honoring the Honor’ (transparent taxation – respect to honest). The Faceless Assessment and Taxpayer Charter came into effect from Thursday and the Faceless Appeal system will come into effect from September 25. The major benefit of these reform measures will be that now the harassment of income tax officials will stop and there will be no collusion. Balyan Jain , Chief Editor and Tax and Investment Expert, Dainik Jagran, about the impact of these income tax reform measures announced by the PM, on the income tax systemspoke with. Let’s know what they said.
Question- What kind of changes in our tax system will the introduction of faceless assessment?
A. The concept of Faceless Assessment (Faceless Assessment) went to bring as e-assessment in 2019 year. Faceless assessment is now being implemented for all assessments under the ‘Transparent Taxation-Honest to Honor’ platform. Under the faceless assessment, taxpayers and tax officials will not directly come into contact with each other. Apart from this, the selection process of investigation cases will also be in auto mode and the selection will be done at random with the help of data analytics and artificial intelligence. It is also proposed to centralize the selection and communication of investigative cases. Assessment work will be done by different units and it will be a team and not one person. This would create an unknown system, where the taxpayer would not know who his Assessment Officer is.
Question- What will the general taxpayers benefit from this new system of faceless assessment?
Answer – The selection of investigation cases will be done at random and in auto mode, then the income tax authorities will not be arbitrary in choosing the investigation cases. Apart from this, the assessment process will also be done in different parts and it will be done as a team by different units. This will not only reduce corruption in the system, but will also stop the harassment of the taxpayer. However, due to the large amount of papers online, there may be some technical bottlenecks in the implementation of the presentation.
Q: What is Taxpayer Charter and why was it required?
Answer – Taxpayer Charter is not new. It existed before 2004. In my opinion, the Taxpayer Charter is like the Directive Principles contained in our Constitution, which are not enforceable like fundamental rights. Taxpayer Charter confers rights and duties to taxpayers in very general terms. In my opinion, the taxpayer charter will not have any significant impact until it is implemented under the Income Tax Act and the law.
Q. What kind of rights will honest taxpayers get from this charter?
Answer– In my opinion, the new taxpayer charter is not going to bring any significant change in the lives of taxpayers. Until it is legally enforced, it is just like a decorative display. Earlier taxpayer charters also had lower compliance and higher violations.
Question- Will the tax base be increased by this new system and these reforms being done in the tax system?
Answer– In my opinion this system is not going to increase the taxpayer base. The problem is in our society. As taxpayers consider politicians to be dishonest and they think that their money is not utilized properly. Till the fundamental change in the behavior of our society, it is a dream to come forward voluntarily for payment of tax. We are in a society where tax evasion is not considered a matter of sin or stigma. The entire society will have to undergo a change to increase the taxpayer base. The same is true of population control.
Q. What kind of reform needs to be done in the link of tax reforms now?
Answer – The most important thing in the case of tax reforms is the simplification of tax laws. Tax laws have been so complicated over the years that even one section of the Income Tax Act fills many pages. Even two chartered accountants will have different opinions on reading the same provision. Only bureaucracy is responsible for making laws so complicated. They then misuse the laws. The government needs to make the tax authorities responsible for punishments on misdeeds.
