All about E assessment or Paperless Assessment proceedings

As a part of e-governance initiative to facilitate compliance, a taxpayer friendly measure in the form of a scheme for E assessment through e-mail has been introduced in seven cities of Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai.

Income tax department has already started seeking consent for use of email based communication for paperless assessment proceeding for AY 2014-15 and AY 2015-16.

Under e-asseement scheme, statutory notice calling for information would be served upon through email. Similarly assessee or his authorised representative can also submit your clarification/ evidence ets  to assessing officer through email. On conclusion of scrutiny proceedings assessment would also be sent to you through email.

The prime objective of this scheme is to eliminate the need to visit the income tax office. If you give consent for E Assessment, the department would not insist on your personal appearance for such proceedings. However, you always retain the option to appear personally or through authorised representative if you so desire at any stage of the proceedings.

Presently e-assessment is applicable only in case of taxpayers whose Income-tax jurisdiction falls in the cities of Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata or Mumbai

Advantage of opting e-assessment or Paperless assessment

• It will not only save precious time of the taxpayer but also provide a 24/7 anytime/anywhere convenience to submit a response to the queries of the Department under scrutiny proceedings.

• It Facilitate a simple way for communication between the department and the taxpayer through electronic means without the necessity to visit the Income Tax Office.

• It will reduce compliance burden on tax payers.

• Taxpayer can track complete information of all the e-submissions made during the course of assessment proceedings

• The taxpayer can at any time at his discretion opt out of this scheme with prior intimation to the assessing officer

Step by Step procedure on e-assessment or Paperless assessment:

• Income Tax Officer will send email the signed and scanned copy of notice under section 143(2) of Income tax Act 1961 in pdf format using his designated email address (official email address under the domain @incometax.gov.in).

• Notice received under section 143(2) clearly mention nature of scrutiny as “Limited Scrutiny”, “Complete Scrutiny” along with issues identified for examination ie. Reason for selection of Assessing Officer will have detailed description related to the case collected from AIR, CIB and other sources.

• The email will be sent to the taxpayer’s email address as provided in his/ her income-tax return of the relevant tax year or in the last income tax return furnished. In case, taxpayer wish to communicate through any other alternative email id, the same may be informed to officer.

• Along with notice u/s 143(2) or separately, Income tax officer will send Email letter seeking consent for use of email based communication of paperless assessment proceedings.

• Based on detailed information available with the assessing officer, further communication in the form of notice under section 142(1) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 will be sent with detailed questionnaire in PDF format requiring taxpayer to submit specified documents in the notice.

• Response should be submitted in PDF format as attachments and the size of attachments in a single email cannot exceed 10MB.

• In case total size of the attachments exceeds 10 MB then the tax payer shall split the attachment and send in as many emails as may be required to adhere to the limit of the attachment size of 10MB per mail.

• If tax payer fails to respond to the notice mentioned earlier, reminder notice will be sent under section 142(1) of income tax act. Showcase notice will be sent giving final opportunity in case any adverse view is contemplated.

• All emails sent or received will be displayed on the assesses “My account” on the e-fling portal incometaxindiaefling.gov.in which can be accessed by the taxpayer after login.

• The submission of the above documents by email will be treated as compliance of the notice received under section 142(1) of income tax Act.

• All email communications between the tax officer and taxpayer shall also be copied to e-assessment@incometax. gov.in for audit trail purposes.

• Once the scrutiny is completed, the tax officer shall pass the Assessment Order under section 143(3) of Income Tax Act and email it in PDF format to the taxpayer.

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