Modi Highlights: Tax rules get easier, friendlier; faceless assessment, appeal, taxpayer charter; honesty honoured

New tax reform is certainly a very taxpayer-friendly step for putting in place a people-centric, public-friendly approach in tax matters and lead to larger structural reforms in the coming years. It will further the goal of Ease of Doing Business as also ensure Ease of Living, which the Prime Minister has been strongly propagating. - Vipul Jhaveri, Managing Partner- Tax, Deloitte India 

The announcement by our Prime Minister today for bring about “Transparent Taxation and Honouring the Honest” reinforces the government's reform agenda for simplification of tax law and bringing about fairness in the tax regime. It will also give a big push to a seamless, faceless, and paperless administration. The idea of honoring honest taxpayers through such a platform will encourage people to participate as also take pride in development and growth of our nation. - Vipul Jhaveri, Managing Partner- Tax, Deloitte India 

The launch of the new taxpayer portal by the Government of India is another step in the direction of ensuring faceless and seamless tax assessments and time-bound resolution of issues. While the faceless assessment and taxpayers charter comes into force from today the faceless taxpayers will also be able to use the platform for faceless appeals from the 25th of September. We believe that the launch of the new portal would go a long way in making the tax filing process smoother and easier for taxpayers. - Jyoti Roy, DVP- Equity Strategist, Angel Broking Ltd

The initiative announced by PM Modi is a move towards making the entire tax filing system into a hassle-free and painless experience for the taxpayer which would eventually encourage people to voluntarily pay taxes on their own. - Niranjan Hiranandani, President, Assocham

Any communication from the I-T Deptartment without a computer-generated DIN, be it a notice, letter, order, or summon or any other correspondence, will be invalid and shall be non-est in the eyes of law. - Nirmala Sitharaman

The comprehensive tax reform announced today will encourage every Indian to use this seamless, faceless, painless platform, pay taxes honestly and contribute to nation-building: Sangita Reddy, President, FICCI.

The Prime Minister emphasised on the need to have simple laws that can be easily understood and adhered to by taxpayers. All these measures will go a long way in ensuring ease of doing business for taxpayers, which will result in better compliance of tax laws and also help augment tax revenues for the Government. - Himanshu Parekh, Partner and Head, Corporate and International Tax, KPMG in India.

The aspects related to faceless assessments and appeals will ensure that there is no opportunity for personal bias and assessments or appeals are conducted in a fair and transparent manner, which will avoid unnecessary controversy and long drawn litigation, which has been a bane for taxpayers. - Himanshu Parekh, Partner and Head, Corporate and International Tax, KPMG in India.

The move is welcome as it is on the right track of respecting the honest taxpayers. This comes in the favorable backdrop of mega reforms of the past few years like GST, Demonetization, tax rate cuts, etc on one hand and the technological advancements and telecom penetration on the other hand. However, the success or otherwise is in the hands of the tax administration. - Naushad Panjwani, Past President, Bombay Chartered Accountants' Society

Faceless assessment and taxpayers charter are welcome moves for the digital economy based on trust and honesty. The government and public sector can bring in large efficiencies using data analytics and AI tools. We expect in the medium-term public sector undertakings to boost spending on data analytics and platforms which will benefit IT and SAAS ecosystem. - Suyog Kulkarni, Senior Analyst- IT services, Media and Internet at Reliance Securities

The launch of the platform for “Transparent Taxation – Honoring the Honest” will incentivise taxpayers to be more honest and transparent in their filings and lead to gradual rise in the direct tax collections. They will enjoy the benefits of relatively less documentation and greater ease of compliance, increased liquidity and flexibility of investment choices. Faceless assessments and appeals will give confidence to the taxpayer of fairness and fearlessness. - Deepak Jasani, Head Retail Research, HDFC Securities.  

After having made its tax rates attractive across the universe, this simplified compliance move would also instill the much need confidence among global investors as India is on the cusp of attracting substantial foreign direct investment in the post-COVID-19 era.  - Mohnish Wadhwa, Founder, Wadhwa & Shah, Chartered accountants.

The approach for selecting cases and tax officers will be based on Artificial Intelligence which will go till the end-to-end finalization of an assessment order without any personal interaction. The initiative also assumes significance since the amount locked up in tax litigation across appellate tribunals and various courts in the country has been over US $60 billion and can be unlocked and put to better productive purpose. - Mohnish Wadhwa, Founder, Wadhwa & Shah, Chartered accountants.

The hassle and harassment-free tax reform was launched last year on a pilot basis and had proved its utility value in eliminating the unwanted procedures which normally emerges with the space available with the assessing official for subjective discretion and personal judgment. - Mohnish Wadhwa, Founder, Wadhwa & Shah, Chartered accountants.

We have decreased complexity, taxes, litigation, and increased transparency, tax compliance, and trust on the taxpayer. - PM Modi

The government is efficiently and effectively using the “nudge” philosophy in public policy to motivate the population towards the desired objective. It is noteworthy to mention that this was originally propounded in our 2019 National Economic Survey as well. In order to derive optimum benefits, these reforms should be followed by consistent efforts to simplify the legislation and removing subjectivity in tax enforcement. -  Divakar Vijayasarathy, Founder and Managing Partner, DVS Advisors LLP. 

Policy-driven governance minimises grey areas, cutting discretion; honest taxpayers play an important role in national development. - PM Modi

The taxpayers charter is a welcome step which enshrines in law the rights and duties of the taxpayers. Though this was known to most of the taxpayers and officials, the introduction of an exclusive charter changes the perception of both the taxpayers and officials from taxpayers being scrutinised as offenders to being viewed as an equal stakeholder. This government in its approach in various other schemes as well has tried to encourage the population at large towards voluntary compliance and this could well help it to achieve the desired reform in the direct tax front. - Divakar Vijayasarathy, Founder and Managing Partner, DVS Advisors LLP. 

The launch of the “transparent taxation - honouring the honest “ is part of digitalisation of the functioning of the income tax Department undertaken to eradicate corruption, harassment of the taxpayers, and reducing litigation by introducing faceless transactions. Some part of it is already in practice with most of the notice being issued under e-proceedings. Now the same is being extended to assessment and appeal. - Divakar Vijayasarathy, Founder and Managing Partner, DVS Advisors LLP. 

"Government has rightly increased the thresholds for appeals to be filed by the revenue to reduce litigations. These steps may significantly improve the direct tax to GDP ratio in going forward after reforms are fully implemented.”  - Kumarmanglam Vijay, Partner, J Sagar Associate

Proposed reforms launched by the Prime Minister to simplify assessment and appellate processes coupled with an initiative to provide pre-filled return forms to taxpayers are steps towards making the process technology-driven and easy to comply with a common person, said Kumarmanglam Vijay, Partner, J Sagar Associate. 

The number of taxpayers in the country is a very small percentage of the total population and fundamental reforms were needed in the Indian tax system - PM Modi

The facility of faceless appeal will be available for citizens across the country from September 25. Today as the tax system is becoming faceless, it is giving more confidence to the taxpayer of fairness and fearlessness. - PM Modi

Honest taxpayers of the country play a big role in nation-building. When the life of an honest taxpayer becomes easy then the country also develops. - PM

The taxpayer is now assured of fair, courteous, and rational behaviour. That is, the I-T dept now has to take care of the taxpayers' dignity sensitively. - PM Modi. 

There should not be any physical interface between taxpayers and I-T department - FM Sitharaman

Prime Minister Narendra Modi exhorted taxpayers: Ask your conscience and pay tax honestly

Every taxpayer should think of contribution. Those who are still not in tax net must ask their conscience and see if they must pay taxes too. The way that we have paved for paying tax is a lucrative one. - PM Modi

Only a few countries in the world respect taxpayers, India has become one of them. - PM Modi

Statutory timelines for filing returns being extended due to Covid-19, FM Nirmala Sitharaman said at the launch of 'Transparent Taxation'

Computer to randomly decide who gets to handle tax cases. This system will eliminate the need of building relationships with taxpayer and tax offices. -- PM Modi

Scrutiny, notice, and survey are currently handled by the IT officer of your own city. But we are making it different now. It will be handled by technology. Scrutiny will be randomised. For example, a Mumbai officer may survey tax related cases of someone in Guwahati. - PM Modi

The government is now focussing on making tax-paying seamless, painless, faceless. Faceless as it shouldn't matter who is paying tax and who is tax officer  - PM Modi

Taxpayer charter comes with responsibilities for taxpayers too. The taxpayer must pay tax because that is how the system works. - PM Modi

The government has not only resolved complications in taxation but has also reduced tax slabs. Government now focussing on making tax-paying seamless, painless, faceless.  -PM Modi

PM Modi says faceless assessment, taxpayer charter to apply from today; faceless appeal will be applicable from 25 September

"The emphasis is on making every rule, law, policy people-centric, and public friendly. This is the use of the new governance model and the country is getting its results" PM Modi said.

'Earlier, our focus has been on banking the unbanked, securing the unsecured, funding the unfunded. Today, we are launching Honouring the Honest platform,' PM Modi said

With high complexity, compliance becomes difficult too  -PM Modi