The Income Tax Department has launched the Faceless Income Tax Appeals. Under Faceless Appeals, all Income Tax appeals will be finalised in a faceless manner under the faceless ecosystem with the exception of appeals relating to serious frauds, major tax evasion, sensitive & search matters, International tax and Black Money Act. The Gazette notification is available for download

Vodafone International Holdings BV had invoked Clause 9 of the Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) signed between India and the Netherlands to challenge the retrospective amendment to tax capital gains of Rs 22,100 crore. In a unanimous decision, the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague has held that the retrospective demand was “in breach of the guarantee of fair and equitable treatment”. The court has also asked India not to pursue the tax demand any more against Vodafone Group

The ITAT has issued a directive dated 17th September 2020 stating that as several court functioning days of the ITAT have been lost in the year 2020 due to the ongoing pandemic situation and the nation-wide lockdown, the remaining period of the bench non-sitting days during the Calendar year 2020 may be treated as cancelled with immediate effect

In the light of the Covid pandemic, the reporting and disclosure requirement towards the international transactions is challenging for the members of Institute of chartered accountants of India (ICAI). The ICAI through its Committee on International Taxation has been issuing guidance for its members in respect of Report under Section 92E of the Income-tax Act, 1961. The Committee has brought out the eighth edition of this Guidance Note in which all the amendments made upto Finance Act, 2020 have been incorporated

The ongoing reforms aim at making the tax system Seamless, Painless, Faceless. The Seamless system works to resolve the problems of a taxpayer instead of entangling him further. Under the Faceless system, there is no need for direct contact between the Taxpayer and the Income Tax Officer in all matters of scrutiny, notice, survey or assessment. The Taxpayers Charter is a significant step where the taxpayer is now assured of fair, courteous and rational behavior. The charter takes care of maintaining the dignity and sensitivity of the taxpayer and that is based on a trust factor and that the assessee cannot be merely doubted without a basis

The CBDT has issued an order, dated 13th August 2020 under section 119 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, stating that all assessment orders shall be passed by the National eAssessment Centre through the Faceless Assessment Scheme, 2019 subject to certain exceptions. It is also stated that any assessment order which is not in conformity with this shall be treated as non-est and shall be deemed to have never been passed