Income Tax Act Revamp: An Introduction

[Vivek Jalan]

In pursuance of the announcement in the Union Budget 2024-25 by Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has formed an internal committee to oversee a comprehensive review of the Income Tax Act, 1961. The Committee for Comprehensive Review of the Income Tax Act, 1961 has been now formed under the chairmanship of Mr V K Gupta, Chief Commissioner of Income Tax.

The review exercise would not entail any major procedural or tax rate changes to the Act. It aims at bringing about rationalisation and simplification in the Income Tax Act, 1961. The goal is to make the Act concise, clear, and easy to understand, which will reduce disputes, litigation, and provide greater tax certainty to taxpayers.

The committee has invited public inputs and suggestions in four categories:

1. Simplification of Language
2. Litigation Reduction
3. Compliance Reduction, and
4. Redundant/Obsolete Provisions

To facilitate this, a webpage has been launched on the e-filing portal, which can be accessed with the following link:

https://eportal.incometax.gov.in/iec/foservices/#/pre-login/ita-comprehensive-review

The above link is live and accessible to the stakeholders/experts/public in the E-filing portal from 06.10.2024. The stakeholders/experts/public can access the page by entering their name and mobile number, followed up by a validation via OTP.

Suggestions by stakeholders/experts/public should specify the relevant provision of the Income-tax Act, 1961 or Income-tax Rules, 1962 (mentioning the specific section, sub-section, clause, rule, sub-rule, or form number), as the case may be, to which the suggestion relates under the aforementioned four categories.

To start with, the following broad concerns have been raised

• Abridged version of the Income Tax Act to be introduced for small taxpayers
• Provisos to various sections to be removed and subsumed in the language of the section.
• One section to have more than one small and simple substances
• Department to have one consistent view on a provision
• Tax holidays and sunset clauses to be removed as far as possible
• Mediation machinery to be established with retired officers and independent professionals
• Decriminalisation of provisions
• Concerns on faceless assessments to be addressed
• Surcharge and Education cess to be subsumed in the tax rate
• Form 3CD to be a comprehensive certificate, which can be used for multiple purposes
• Illustrations to be incorporated in sections, where specific situations are targeted
• Definitions of various terms to be harmonised with other related Acts
• Tax department to come out with a periodic commentary, such as done by OECD
• TDS provisions to be rationalised
• Coordination between CPC and Assessing Officer to be streamlineds
• Department to highlight the major sources of litigation
• Department to come up with a utility with important provisions and information for small taxpayers