Assessment Procedure

Every July your father, like lakhs of other Mumbaikars, files a return and declares his own income. Nobody from the tax office stands over his shoulder while he does it. So what stops him from writing a smaller number? The answer is assessment: the process by which the tax department checks what the taxpayer declared and, if necessary, fixes the figure itself. This topic asks how that check works, when it is light and when it is heavy, and what the taxpayer can insist on.

In two minutes

Assessment is the official determination of the income or tax liability of a person: it starts with the taxpayer's own declaration (self-assessment) and moves, only when needed, to scrutiny, best-judgment or reassessment, each with its own trigger and its own safeguards.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Law of Taxation on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.