Budget 2024 needs to decide if faceless assessment is revolutionising tax landscape or creating hurdles?

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Budget Expectations: As India eagerly anticipates the Union Budget 2024, one area of keen interest for taxpayers, especially corporates, is the refinement of the faceless assessment scheme. Despite its noble intentions and innovative approach, the implementation of the faceless assessment scheme has encountered several significant challenges, which, if appropriately addressed, can pave the way for meeting the underlying intended objectives and play a pivotal role for ‘Ease of Doing Business’ in India.

Typically, in case of large corporate taxpayers, before concluding the assessments, the Faceless Officer calls for copious amounts of data, justification etc. from the taxpayer such, as reconciliation of revenue with the GST returns, reconciliation of information reported on the Insight Portal, details of expenses in pre-defined formats etc. These information requests are often issued close to the statutory deadline for concluding such proceedings, leaving taxpayers with very limited time to provide the reconciliation and the necessary supporting documents, ultimately leading to unwarranted additions.

Budget should get rid of one-size-fits-all approach

Further, in cases even where the taxpayers submit comprehensive reconciliations along with the necessary supporting documentation, there are instances where unwarranted additions are made by tax officers, particularly due to lack of familiarity with GST concepts and its impact on the Income tax law, failure to understand transaction's true nature.

Budget needs to