A Quick Guide To The Income Tax Manual Scrutiny Criteria for 2017-18

Every year the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) releases the criteria for Income Tax manual scrutiny. When you are planning to file your tax returns then you must be aware of these criteria, as they may prove to be helpful. Recently the Department of Revenue issued the I-T manual scrutiny criteria for the year 2017-18 to all the commissioners, directors and officers of the Income Tax Department. The manual scrutiny criteria are published each year in compliance with the changed laws and improvements based on any special cases. This lists the scrutinizing procedure for assessments leading to a professional judgment by the concerned department.

The Manual Scrutiny Guidelines for Income Tax Cases for financial year 2016-17 relevant to Assessment Year 2017-18

The guidelines provided for selection of cases of scrutiny goes as:

1. The Board has laid down following procedures and criteria for compulsory manual selection of returns or cases for scrutiny during the financial year 2017-18
2. Cases involved on a recurring issue of law or factors to the following amounts –
3. which exceeds Rs. 25 lakh in the metro charges of Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune, whereas at other charges the total should exceed Rs. 10 lakh.
4. in the transferring pricing cases the amount should exceed Rs. 10 crore and where

• The addition is assessment has become the final value as no other appeal was filed
• The addition was confirmed at any stage of the appellate process in favor of the revenue and the assessee has not filed a further appeal
• The addition has been confirmed at the first appeal stage in favor of the revenue and the further appeal of the assessee is pending

1. All assessments are pertained to survey under Section 133A of the I-T Act, but it excludes those whose books of accounts, documents, etc. were not impounded and the returned income is not less than the returned income of the preceding assessment year.

• The assessments under search and seizure cases should be conducted as per the Sections 158B, 158BC, 158(1), 153A & 153C along with Section 143(3) of the I-T Act.

1. Returns should be filed with respect to the notice issued under Section 148 of the Act.

1. In various cases where orders of withdrawal approval or registration have been reversed or set aside in appellate proceedings, will not be selected under this clause.

1. Before selecting a case for scrutiny which has been directed by the Government Department for tax evasion, the Assessing Officer will have to take prior permission from the concerned jurisdictional Pr.CIT/Pr.DIT/CIT/DIT.

2. The Computer Aided Scrutiny Selection or CASS-2017 is also selecting cases on the basis of broad-based selection filters in a non-discretionary manner. It involves two categories – Limited Scrutiny and Complete Scrutiny. The concerned jurisdictional authority takes further action on the cases which are being intimated by the Pr. DGIT (Systems).

3. This notice must be brought to everyone’s attention for the fulfillment of the clauses by every official concerned.

4. The Hindi version will follow soon for the benefit of many involved in the department.