Few points reg. the new Income Tax bill

 How to reduce the litigation in Income tax Assessments under IT Act.

1)As per CBDT Time series released upto FY23-24, Pre-Assessment Tax collected which include TDS, Advance Tax and Self-Assessment Tax paid show almost 88% is collected (IT dept link ).Even out of the balance 12%, a major portion comes out of Central TDS, Dividend Tax,Equalisation levy which are also collected Pre-Assessment.Only a small percentage is collected by way of Post-Assessments and if we look at how much of Post-Assessment Tax lies in Appeals at CIT(A), ITAT, High Courts and Supreme Court,then we can get a fair idea of usefulness of Assessment process and procedure.

2)Since CIT(A) is the first Appeal level and there is a huge backlog of Appeals lying before CIT(A)s, we may even consider this Quasi Judicial Authority to be assisted by AI for speedy disposal of Appeals without prejudice to any significant fall in Tax collections since most of the Direct Tax(i.e 88% approx) is collected through TDS, Advance Tax and Self Assessment Tax as per CBDT Time series data upto FY23-24.

3)Even if CIT(A) position is combined with ITAT and segregated based on the amount of Tax under litigation, it may speed up the process.

4)Since Govt is the biggest litigant, Govt may look at dropping litigation if they lose in both ITAT &CIT(A) without going upto High Court and if they lose in ITAT and High Court not to take it before Supreme Court unless the Tax amount or the underlying legal point has pan-India implication.