Government Seeks Stakeholders' Input For Comprehensive Income-Tax Act Review

The government announced on Wednesday that it has sought inputs and ideas from stakeholders as it speeds up the comprehensive review of the six-decade-old Income-Tax Act to achieve tax system reform. The apex body on Monday floated a dedicated webpage on the e-filing portal, asking for suggestions on simplifying the language of the Act, reducing litigations, streamlining compliance, and removing redundant provisions.

The initiative aims to make the tax system more efficient and user-friendly, ensuring long-term benefits for all stakeholders.

The revenue department aims to complete the exercise by January 2025, ahead of the Union Budget in the following month.

The internal committee, led by Chief Commissioner V K Gupta, is undergoing deliberations on issues and challenges of the review of direct tax reform.

"This crowdsourced approach aims to address the challenges faced by taxpayers, accountants, and legal professionals, ensuring that their experiences help shape the reforms," said Maneesh Bawa, Partner, Nangia Andersen India.

"This is a concept of crowdsourcing ideas from key stakeholders, i.e., taxpayers. This initiative is unprecedented in the history of income tax," said Sudhir Kapadia, EY Senior Advisor.

"It would be good if the government shared a draft of the final recommendations of the internal committee so that all stakeholders can comment and give their views before these are incorporated into law," Kapadia added.

The panel is looking into rationalising exemptions and deductions, removing duplications, aligning computation methods with international standards, and streamlining the tax appeals process.