While presenting the Union Budget on Monday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that the Finance Ministry will introduce pre-filled Income-Tax Return (ITR) forms with details on capital gains from listed securities, dividend income and interest income from banks and post offices soon.
The current form has all the personal details, taxes paid and bank account details pre-filled. Previously, steps were taken with ITR forms released in 2019 which had some information pre-filled like details of bank account and salary. It is expected that there will be more details that are pre-filled in ITR forms in the coming year.
Nirmala Sitharaman added that fresh measures will be taken to identify tax evaders. “The capacity of the GSTN system has also been enhanced. We have also deployed deep analytics and Artificial Intelligence to identify tax evaders and fake billers and launched special drives against them," she added.
The Budget also proposed to start a faceless Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT). For small taxpayers with taxable income up to Rs 50 lakh, a dispute resolution committee would be set up.
The minister also stated that there will be a reduced time limit for reopening of income tax assessment cases. It will reduce to three years from six years, while for serious tax fraud cases where concealment of income is Rs 50 lakh or more it would be 10 years.