As we know now majority of assessments are being conducted under Faceless assessment scheme wherein notices are received online and reply also needs to be filed online and one is not aware who is the assessing officer doing the assessment.
Recently, CBDT has made a few amendments in the above faceless assessment scheme. We have discussed about the scheme in that post. Now let’s see what is rectification u/s 154 and how it has changed under the faceless assessment scheme.
Rectification under section 154 of the Income tax act is as under:
“Rectification of mistake:
1) With a view to rectifying any mistake apparent from the record an income- tax authority referred to in section 116 may,—
(a) amend any order passed by it under the provisions of this Act ;
(b) amend any intimation or deemed intimation under sub-section (1) of section 143;
(c) amend any intimation under sub-section (1) of section 200A;
(d) amend any intimation under sub-section (1) of section 206CB.”
Sub section 4 of section 154 read as under:
“Where an amendment is made under this section, an order shall be passed in writing by the income-tax authority concerned.”
Thus, according to above section this section shall apply to only the Income tax authorities covered under section 116 and one can apply for rectification of any order passed under the provisions of this act.
Hence, this will also cover Assessment order passed under section 143(3) of the Income tax act.
Under this section one can apply for “rectifying any mistake apparent from the record”.
Earlier under the old system when an assessing officer used to pass an assessment order u/s 143(3), assessee could file a rectification application u/s 154 directly to that assessing officer.
However now since all assessment are being conducted online in a faceless manner and as of now there is no system to file online rectification against such assessment order, assessee and professionals are confused as to how they can file rectification application against assessment order passed in faceless assessment scheme.
The application could be for any reason:
1. Not considering the tax paid or TDS credit while calculating tax payable in assessment order.
2. Calculating tax payable at incorrect tax rate.
3. Including an income twice or including some income which is not mentioned in assessment order.
Hence, there could be many reasons for filing such rectification application and according to our view and research we would like to state that since there is no online facility to file rectification application and you will have to still file rectification application with your local assessing officer.
Now, this is a bit of tricky application that assessment order is being passed by one assessing officer and rectification will be done by another assessing officer.
Do comment if you have faced the same problem and don’t know where to file rectification application.
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