Taxman brings in software for post-returns scrutiny

NEW DELHI: The Income Tax department is deploying a new software solution to scrutinise the accounts of companies once the firms have filed their returns.

The software solution, called CAIT, will help match account books with the returns filed by the respective companies and find out if there is any discrepencies, a key official source said here.

The installation of the software is part of the ongoing efforts by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to modernise its scrutiny system to catch the defaulters.

The CBDT has already installed the 360 degree profiling solution, which assesses expenditure and investments of assessees from various sources and throws up alerts to income tax officers where there could be a possibility of tax default.

This 360 degree profiling, technically called IT-DMS software, throws up cases for scrutiny before returns are filed and the CAIT will do so after submission of returns by companies, the source added.

CAIT will do away with the manual scrutiny of accounts. "Over the years, more and more assessees have taken to maintaining their books of account on computer. The accounts have become more voluminous and complex. However, methods of scrutiny by the Income Tax Department have remained manual," he said.