Section 273: faceless assessment

Scope of faceless assessment

Irrespective of any other provision of the Act, assessment, reassessment or recomputation under Section 270(10), 271 or 279 must be made in a faceless manner, as prescribed, for the territorial areas, persons, incomes or cases that the Board specifies.

The Centre and Units

The Board may set up the following for faceless assessment, and specify their functions and jurisdiction:

• A National Faceless Assessment Centre - to run faceless assessment proceedings centrally, assign cases to assessment units, notify the assessee that their case will be handled under this section, serve notices under Section 268(1) or 270(8), and forward the assessee's responses to the assessment unit
• Assessment units - to analyse material furnished, identify issues material to determining liability (including refund), seek clarification, determine variations prejudicial to the assessee, and other assessment functions
• Verification units - to conduct enquiry, cross-verification, examination of books of account and witnesses, and recording of statements
• Technical units - to provide assistance/advice on legal, accounting, forensic, IT, valuation, transfer pricing, data analytics, management or other technical matters
• Review units - to review variations proposed by the assessment unit (where the National Faceless Assessment Centre considers it necessary), checking that relevant evidence and points of fact/law have been properly incorporated

How the units work together

The verification, technical and review units facilitate the faceless assessment process. The assessment unit makes the assessment of total income or loss by a written order, after considering all relevant material and giving the assessee an opportunity of being heard, and may initiate penalty proceedings; it also determines the sum payable or refund due.

"Assessment unit," "verification unit," "technical unit" and "review unit" all refer to an Assessing Officer with powers assigned by the Board for that function, and are staffed by Additional/Joint Commissioners or Directors, Deputy/Assistant Commissioners or Directors, Income-tax Officers, and other authorised personnel as the Board considers necessary.

Electronic-only communication

Except as provided in sub-section (8), all communication among the units, and between any unit and the assessee or other persons, must go through the National Faceless Assessment Centre, and communication between the Centre and the assessee/units must be exclusively electronic.

This electronic-only requirement does not apply to enquiry or verification conducted by the verification unit in circumstances the Board specifies.

Transferring a case out of the faceless system

If the Principal Chief Commissioner or Principal Director General in charge of the National Faceless Assessment Centre considers Section 268(5) (special audit) should be invoked, they may forward the reference to the jurisdictional Principal Chief Commissioner/Chief Commissioner/Principal Commissioner/Commissioner, who then directs the jurisdictional Assessing Officer to invoke Section 268(5). If no such reference is forwarded, the assessment unit continues under the faceless procedure.

At any stage, the Principal Chief Commissioner or Principal Director General in charge of the Centre may, with the Board's prior approval, transfer a case to the Assessing Officer having jurisdiction over it.

Definitions

"Designated portal" means the web portal designated by the Principal Chief Commissioner or Principal Director General in charge of the National Faceless Assessment Centre.

"Faceless assessment" means assessment proceedings conducted electronically through the "e-Proceeding" facility in the assessee's registered account on the designated portal.

"Registered account" means the assessee's electronic filing account registered on the designated portal.

Frequently asked questions