How to Find Jurisdictional Assessing Officer

How to Find Jurisdictional Assessing Officer – Income Tax

How to Find Jurisdictional Assessing Officer – Income Tax: Sometimes while executing income tax-related work, one has to meet the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer, or simply they are known as Assessing Officers. These types of officers are related to one’s PAN number. Many people are still unaware that they need to consult Assessing officers while facing problems in the process of filing income tax. One can commit a lot of mistakes while filing the income tax if he/she is not acquainted with the process. Therefore through this article, we will try to explain the steps that one can take to find a Jurisdictional Assessing Officer.

Assessing Officer of Income Tax

An Assessing Officer is considered to be a person who has assesses as well as the jurisdiction for making the assessment of an assessee who is considered liable under the Income Tax Act. He/she is responsible for making tax decisions and judgments for a particular assessee. This type of designation seems to vary depending upon the volume of income or nature of trade which is assigned by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT Board is a department that deals explicitly with income tax). An Assessing Officer can be an Income Tax Office, Deputy Commissioner, Joint Commissioner, Assistant Commissioner, or an Additional Commissioner.

Why One Needs an Assessing Officer?

Most people consider Income Tax Laws as complicated and difficult to understand. The CBDT board gives out a lot of instructions, guidance notes, and circulars for the taxpayers so that they can understand the ways of interpreting tax laws. However, the truth is that assessments of tax involve both subjective as well as objective considerations and that the Assessing Officer is considered to be a quasi-judicial statutory authority who is responsible for safeguarding the interests of the Income Tax Department and at the same time show some objectivity in assessments.

These are some following situations when one needs to meet an Assessing Officer:

  • When one has committed mistakes while filling up the Challan 280 online.
  • When one receives a notice from the Income Tax Department for different reasons such as outstanding demand, scrutiny, or for following up the refund to get some reasons for why it has not been processed, basically, one needs an Assessing Officer when he/she wants somebody to represent himself/herself in a particular case.

However, even after meeting the Assessing Officer, no actions are taken then a taxpayer has all the rights to move up the hierarchy and write a letter to the Jurisdictional Chief Commissioner and send it along with the copies of the previous letters that have been sent to the Assessing Officer and a copy of the tax return filed.

Note:

It is not at all compulsory for the taxpayer to meet the Assessing Officer personally, he/she can send a lawyer or a Chartered Accountant on his/her behalf in order to submit all the required papers.

Finding Jurisdictional Assessing Officer

Jurisdiction of an Assessing Officer is considered to be a particular area within which the officer has the right to assesses different requests. It is known to be associated with the PAN ( Permanent Account Number ). A permanent Account Number is an identification number that is given to every taxpayer, and as the name suggests, this number is permanent, and it doesn’t change during a PAN holder’s lifetime. Although changing the address or city in the PAN might change the Assessing Officer. A taxpayer must ensure that such changes are reported to the nearest IT PAN Service Centres or TIN Facilitation Center for executing the required correction in the PAN databases of the Income Tax Department.  These requests had to be made through a form for requests for New PAN card or Changes in the PAN card.

Steps to Find a Jurisdictional Assessing Officer

One has to search for his/her assessing officer from the first week of February. So to execute this process of searching, he/she has to follow the following steps:

  • Firstly, a taxpayer needs to login into his/her account on the income tax e-filing website. This is done with the use of a password as well as the PAN number.
  • Go to the menu option and click on profile settings
  • Then click on the option ‘PAN details’. After clicking the option, one will be able to see the jurisdiction info.

Meeting the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer

After submitting the required documents to the Assessing Officer, one will get an acknowledgment. Acknowledgement seems to be a stamp on the letter that the taxpayer has submitted, which shows the date of submission. A taxpayer is required to take two copies of the letter. For the purpose of the documentation, always remember to keep a copy of the papers that have been submitted and always submit the xerox and not the original document.

Change of Assessing Officer and Jurisdiction of Income Tax

The income tax return is typically processed by the Central Processing Cell (CPC), which is located in Bangalore. But in some cases, the taxpayer might feel the need to contact his/her Assessing Officer. One might need to change the Assessing Officer or the jurisdiction of Income Tax for the following reasons:

  • Income tax refund
  • Response to the outstanding tax demand
  • Correction of challan 280
  • Notice for processing of income tax return in order to meet the assessing officer

It is common that taxpayers shift places because of their work or some other personal reasons. In this case, due to the change in taxpayer’s address, there is various information that is to be changed and modified for the filing of tax returns. For example, let’s say a taxpayer shifted from Bangalore to Mumbai for his work. Here, the taxpayer’s old jurisdiction is Bangalore. However, for future dealings with the Income Tax Department, the taxpayer had to change his jurisdiction to Mumbai. In such cases, the taxpayer needs to inform the existing jurisdictional income tax officer about such change through a written application. Many times the jurisdictions are changed automatically.

If a taxpayer wants to change his/her jurisdiction for change in address or an ill-mannered Assessing Officer, then he/she must keep the following things in mind:

  • A total of six copies of the application must be filed with the competent authority.
  • Copy of the application must be sent to the concerned AO, CIT and Addl./Jt.CIT.
  • As per Section 137(4) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, one can transfer his/her income files at any stage of proceedings, even if the assessment is pending.
  • After the file is transferred, then the demand or the refund of tax can be collected or refunded by the new assessing officer. Now the Central Processing Center is responsible for processing a day’s demand or refund.

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