Scrutiny time for tax returns could be down to 1 year as govt plans friendlier approach

In what could be a bit of a relief for income tax payers, the government is looking forward to reducing the time under which an assessment of an individual's tax returns picked up for random scrutiny is completed to one year.

As of now, this assessment can be completed in two years after the close of the assessment year. This means that scrutiny of returns for the financial year 2014-15, for which assessment year is 2015-16, can be completed till March 2018.

In the first phase of this restructuring, the period is proposed to be reduced to 21 months, which when applied to the above example mandates the assessment to be completed until December 2017.

"We plan to reduce it by three months every year so that assessment is completed in 12 months," said a senior revenue department officer.

The reason behind toning up the assessment process is the government’s approach to make it a friendlier administration. They plan to do so with less aggressive assessment and removal of unwanted fishing expeditions.

For the next stage of the toning process, the revenue department wants timely completion of assessment, preferably done well within the time period without having to wait for the end of the deadline.

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