New Delhi: The Income Tax Department has launched the final assessment of 87,000 cases in the country for making suspicious deposits post demonetisation, as the taxman has been authorised to exercise the ‘best judgement’ protocol, the CBDT has said.
A standard operating procedure (SOP) was issued by the CBDT in this context on March 5 and it has asked the department to conclude this exercise by the end of the current financial year in March and “in any case” by June 30. The SOP states that while the taxman initially sent notices (under section 142(1) that pertains to inquiry before assessment) in 3 lakh cases, 87,000 out of these have “not filed their return of income” for assessment year 2017-18.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) that frames policy for the tax department has asked the assessing officers (AOs) to use the ‘best judgement assessment’ procedure as stipulated under section 144 of the I-T Act to finalise these cases. The two high-value notes of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 were demonetised as part of the decision. The CBDT directive said that the AO should also make a “detailed analysis of past income tax returns, if available, to form an opinion regarding nature of transactions related to demonetisation.”