The Union Budget 2021-22 has proposed to reduce the tax compliance burden by incorporating additional details in pre-filled tax returns.
The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the income-tax returns would now be pre-filled with the details of capital gains from listed securities and interest income from both banks and post-offices. Pre-filled forms help the tax payer as the burden of maintaining copious details and records is eased. It also helps the government, as with such details, tax evasion would reduce over time.
Reopening assessments
Additionally, to ensure that the taxpayers are not inconvenienced, the timeline for re-opening of income tax assessments has been reduced to three years from the present period of six years.
This would also save the taxpayers the trouble of preserving and collating documents over a longer period of time.
It has also been proposed that in cases of serious tax evasion, re-opening is allowed only where there is evidence of concealment of income of Rs 50 lakh or more in a year.
Faceless Appeals
After setting the stage for faceless assessments in the past, the Finance Minister announced that appeals linked to the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, too, would be made faceless. So, assessment would take place without an interaction between the taxpayer and income tax officers. If a meeting has to be arranged, the same would be scheduled electronically through video conferencing.
This would save the taxpayer the hassle of travelling to another city for the appeal hearing.
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
