New Delhi, September 26: Twenty-four days after the closing of Income Tax (IT) filing date, the IT department has identified about 4,00,000 taxpayers who are all set to face scrutiny under the new faceless assessment scheme. The department stated that they have already served notice to over 1,00,000 assessees, asking them to explain on the returns filed within 15 days. The deadline for sending scrutiny letters is September 30.

According to a report published in the Business Standard, India's premier tax collection department has selected 100 parameters to scrutinise returns under computer-assisted scrutiny selection (CASS) cycle for the current year. The department has served the taxpayers notices under the new CASS cycle. Income Tax Rate Reduction Recommended by Task Force in Report to Nirmala Sitharaman, Here's What the New Slab will Look Like if Modi Government Agrees.

The parameters include -- high-value transactions; misreporting of long-term capital gains; undisclosed foreign income and immovable properties; TDS claimed not matching with the tax forms; non-disclosure of investments made in the name of spouse, relatives; filing a defective return; tax evasion in earlier years.

However, the e-assessment may not be fully faceless initially. The reason being the jurisdiction-assessing officer of the assessee would have the rights to view and verify ITR details at the time of serving notices. The officer can also access the ITBA portal containing profiles of assessees, including ITR, TDS details, PAN, and details of the order.

Briefing more, the assessment module prepared by the I-T department states, as quoted by the daily, "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)." New Income Tax Slabs For Taxpayers: Here Are Five Rates Proposed by Task Force

Apart from the rights to access assessee's files, the officer is responsible for issuing notices and checking whether it has been delivered or not. If the notices are bounced, the officer would take a print out and send a physical copy to the assessee concerned. In case, the returns are assessed by an officer who is not the jurisdictional AO, assessee's PAN would be immediately sent to the jurisdictional AO.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 26, 2019 03:50 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).