Use of technology and AI will aid direct tax compliance, says CBDT chairman | Technology News

Mr. Gupta said the increase in direct tax revenue was largely due to technology and other measures being taken to plug leakages, as outlined in the 2024-25 Budget presented last week. Stated. “There are a number of factors. One is the use of technology on the data that we have available to us and the disclosure of that data to taxpayers through the AIS (Annual Information Report). We’ve also made faster processing and faster issuance of refunds, increasing taxpayer confidence in the tax department. “But it has been done in the sense that whatever potential evasion there was has been largely thwarted. Taxpayers are therefore expected not to resort to those methodologies[for tax evasion].” said.

In cases where there is a large discrepancy between declared income and financial transactions, the Tax Department approaches taxpayers through electronic verification schemes.

“Electronic verification is yielding better results in the sense that taxpayers are actually thinking about how they should disclose their actual income,” he said.

Although the Budget announced cancellation of outstanding direct tax demands up to Rs 25,000 for the period up to financial year 2009-10 and up to Rs 10,000 for the period from 2010-11 to 2014-15, the Income Tax Department is separately working on the following resolutions: For tax demands above Rs 100 crore, we process tax demands through the Demand Facilitation Center (DFC) in Mysore, which involves chartered accountants, taxpayers and assessors.

“For higher-value claims of around Rs 1,000 crore, we have started with a claims facilitation center… where we have a dedicated team that liaises with taxpayers, chartered accountants and assessors. They tried to resolve all three at once (all at once) for the convenience of the assessee.In some cases, even though the assessee paid the tax, it may not be reflected in the tax. In some cases, there may be a petition seeking to remedy the claim, whether the appeal is valid, remedied, or disposed of, so that the taxpayer can be required to pay it or the appeal can be disposed of quickly. So, that process has already started,” said Mr.Gupta.

The DFC was established in July 2022 and has so far disposed of 1.46 billion tax demand cases, reducing the demand amount by Rs 3.57 billion, the CBDT chairman said.

“This is an effort to cleanse the system, unclog the system and focus energy for the greater good,” he said.

Regarding the decision not to extend the 15% preferential corporate tax rate for new manufacturing units set up after March 31, 2024, Mr. Gupta said such units have been given sufficient time. He said around 3,000 new manufacturing units had opted for the 15% concession rate in 2022-23, adding that the number could rise further in the ongoing 2023-24 financial year.

The government will decide whether to grant extensions to these new manufacturing units or introduce any new measures at the time of the full budget, which is likely to be tabled in July after the election. . “The government will decide at the time of the regular budget whether it wants to introduce something or not, but at the moment we have been granted a sufficient extension from 2019 to 2024,” he said.