Good News for Taxpayers on ITR Refund..CPC Key Decision on ITR Refund
Sweet treat for taxpayers. Henceforth, the refund will be issued faster. As per the new rules, the Assessing Officer will have to take a decision on issuance of refund within 21 days.
ITR Filing:
The central government has given sweet talk. The announcement was made to give relief to the tax payers. The Income Tax Department has recently reduced the time to 21 days for deciding on the adjustment of tax refunds due to the tax authorities. It can be said that this will give relief to the tax payers.
Till now the tax authorities had a deadline of 30 days. But now this time limit has been reduced to 21 days, said Directorate of Income Tax (Systems). If the taxpayer does not agree to the refund adjustment or partially agrees, the CPC should immediately refer the matter to the tax authorities. The tax authorities are required to inform the CPC of their decision regarding refund adjustment within 21 days from the date so indicated.
Income Tax Returns:
The Centralized Processing Center (CPC) observed that errors in refund adjustment were due to wrong classification of demand and lack of feedback from the AO (Assessing Officer) on the response from the taxpayer. It said that this is causing unnecessary complaints. Moreover, the AO’s lack of prompt response to complaints received from tax payers is another matter of concern.
According to the new orders, now the Assessing Officer has only 21 days. The Assessing Officer has to respond to the complaint of the taxpayer. There will be no expiry even up to 30 days as before. As a result, the CPC will not be able to retain the refunds after the due date. This will result in faster refund adjustment. This will give relief to the tax payers.
As per Section 245 of the Income Tax Act, the Assessing Officer is empowered to adjust the refund in respect of tax demand. Tax payers can file a complaint if there are any mistakes regarding the tax demand. According to the Directorate of Income Tax, even though the Assessing Officers have 30 days to give their response, in many cases the response is not given within the deadline. This is causing delay in issuing refunds. Due to this, complaints from tax payers are increasing.
