Insight Instruction No. 8, issued by the Directorate of Income Tax (Systems), outlines the process for handling high-risk refund Income Tax Returns (ITRs) for Assessment Year 2024-25. These cases are flagged based on specific rules and disseminated to Jurisdictional Assessing Officers (JAOs) via the Insight portal for verification. JAOs are required to verify each case and provide feedback within 30 days, selecting either “ITR can be processed” or “Further risk assessment required.” Detailed guidelines are provided to ensure thorough examination, including assessing deductions, past disallowances, and penalties in previous assessment orders, as well as checking for tax evasion indicators. The standard operating procedure (SOP) offers a step-by-step guide to assist JAOs in navigating the Insight portal and handling case details. JAOs must follow a systematic approach to submit verification feedback. Additionally, the procedure covers reassigning cases within regions to manage workload efficiently. Any technical issues faced by users can be reported to the Insight helpdesk.
Insight Instruction No. 8
DIRECTORATE OF INCOME TAX (SYSTEMS)
ADDITIONAL DIRECTOR GENERAL OF INCOME TAX(SYSTEMS)-2
ARA Centre, Ground Floor, E-2, Jhandewalan Extension,
New Delhi-110055
F. No. DGIT(S)/ADG(S)-2/HRR/2024-25/619 Dated: 03.10.2024
To,
All Pr. CCsIT
Madam / Sir,
Sub.: – High-Risk Refund Cases for A.Y- 2024-25 disseminated to Jurisdictional Assessing Officer at Insight- reg.
Kind reference is invited to the above subject.
2. Cases related to High-Risk refund ITRs for A.Y. 2024-25, identified based upon certain rules are being disseminated to the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer (JAO) for the purpose of verification of refund claim for timely processing of ITRs.
3. JAOs need to verify the cases and provide one of the following feedbacks within 30 days from the date of receipt of case in Insight Portal:
a) “ITR can be processed” or
b) “Further risk assessment required”
4. In this regard, SOP for JAO for verification of High Risk Refund cases is attached as Annexure-A. All the aspects mentioned in the SOP have to be examined in detail before providing feedback as mentioned above. Further, kindly refer to Annexure-B for Step-by-Step guidance on upload of verification report on Insight portal.
5. In case of any technical difficulty being observed, users may contact or write to Insight help desk, (Helpdesk number- 1800-103-4216, Email id: [email protected]).
Yours faithfully,
(Nikhil Varma)
ADG(Systems)-2, New Delhi.
Copy to:
PPS to the Chairman, Member (S&FS), Member (TPS), Member(L), Member (A&J), Member (Adm.) & Member (IT & Rev.), CBDT and DGIT(Systems), New Delhi for information.
ADG(Systems)-2, New Delhi.
Annexure A: Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Jurisdictional Assessing Officer (JAO) for verification of High-Risk Refund (HRR) cases
In the past, incidents were reported wherein wrong refunds had been claimed through various means such as wrong claim of TDS credit, under reporting of income, over stating of deductions, claim of bogus expenses etc. Accordingly, some cases have been identified based upon certain rules. The details of these cases have been made available to JAO through Insight Portal. Such cases should be dealt with as per the procedure prescribed below.
Guidelines for handling high risk refund cases disseminated by Pr. DGIT / DGIT (Systems) to JAO for verification.
1) High Risk refund ITRs have been identified based upon certain rules. Details of such ITR`s have been disseminated to the JAO for the purpose of verification for timely processing of ITR.
2) JAO will get cases in Insight portal in Verification Module with a new case type- “High Risk Refund Cases-JAO”.
3) JAO needs to refer to the relevant Insight Instruction vide subject “Functionality for Verification of High-Risk Refund Cases for Jurisdictional Assessing Officer at Insight- reg”, for accessing the case type and related details in Insight Portal. In case of uneven distribution of cases (more than average) i.e., a few JAOs get more cases than average, PCsIT can reassign/redistribute cases within the PCIT charge for rationalization of workload or where a PCIT charge has more than the average cases, CCsIT can reassign/redistribute cases within the CCIT charge for rationalization of workload. As most of the High-Risk Refund cases will be identified during the time of peak return filing, it is suggested that MIS be regularly monitored in the month of August to October as there may be requirement of redistribution during this period for workload management.
4) JAO must give one of the two feedbacks, that is, “ITR can be processed” or “Further risk assessment required” after verification. The feedback must be given within 30 days from the date of receipt of the case in Insight Portal.
5) JAO shall provide the feedback “Further risk assessment required” only if any of the following-mentioned criteria is fulfilled. If not, JAO shall provide feedback “ITR can be processed”. The criteria are as follows:
i. To examine if any major claim of deductions etc. has been disallowed in any of the latest 3 assessment orders (orders including assessment orders passed u/s 143(3)/144/147/153A/153C/263 of the Income Tax Act-1961) out of last 8 years assessment order data as available in ITBA Portal. After examining the disallowance, JAO shall check the status of appellate proceedings. Only in cases where no appeal has been filed or the disallowance stands confirmed as on date, the feedback “Further risk assessment required” is required to be given.
ii. To examine if any penalty order has been passed for any incorrect submission of facts in any of the latest 3 Penalty Orders out of last 8 years as available in ITBA Portal. If yes, the feedback “Further risk assessment required” must be given.
iii. To examine if taxpayer has revised return and increased claim of refunds in 3 or more years out of the last 8 years as available in AO Portal of e-filing. If yes, the feedback “Further risk assessment required” must be given.
iv. To examine if a PAN has been flagged in High-Risk Refund rules in 3 or more years out of last 8 / available years as available in Insight. If yes, the feedback “Further risk assessment required” must be given.
v. To examine if any information with respect to CRIU/VRU uploads of the latest 3 years is available (and where order taking into account the said uploads has not been passed) for taxpayer in profile views of Insight Portal, which states that the taxpayer has under reported receipt or / claimed deduction not allowable as per the Income-Tax Act, or any other information which suggests any form of tax evasion/ non-compliance on part of the assesses. If yes, then the feedback “Further risk assessment required” must be given.
6) If during the verification, taxpayer revises the Income Tax return, the details of Income,
exempted allowances, deductions claimed, refund claimed, etc. furnished,suchrevised return may be considered by JAO and accordingly feedback may be provided.
Annexure B- Step by Step Quick Reference Guide
Navigation Taxpayer Verification
1. After successful login to Insight, user needs to navigate to Taxpayer Verification and Select “Verification” to select High Risk Refund- JAO Cases.
2. User will be navigated to Case summary view to select High Risk Refund Cases- JAO and click on count as displayed below to navigate to Case List View.
Navigate to HRR JAO Cases
Navigate to Case List View
3. In Case List view, user will be able to view List of Cases created on PANs along with certain other attributes like FY, Assigned to. User will be able to download the List of Cases in Excel available at top right corner of the screen.
4. By clicking “View Detail” hyperlink user will be navigated to Case Detail View.
Case Detail View and Case level activities
5. At Case Detail View, user will be able to view Verification Issue of the case and perform Case Level activities.
a. User will be able to click on view hyperlink displayed against Verification Issue to navigate to Information detail underlying the Verification Issue.
6. Following Case level activities will be available to the user at Case Detail Page
a. Enter Comments
b. Reassign Case
c. Submit ITR Feedback
Enter Comments
7. The following screen will be visible to user on clicking activity “Enter Comments”. User will be able to update comments in the case which will be visible to the user and all supervisor in hierarchy (In cumulative View).
Reassign Case
8. User will be able to Reassign case to the Reporting Officer and Subordinates in hierarchy.
Submit ITR Feedback
9. This activity will be performed by ITD User to submit the Feedback on the Case.
a. Options available for Feedback will be – “ITR can be processed” or “Further Risk Assessment Required”.
b. In case user selects Further Risk Assessment Required, User will be prompted to enter the Amount.
i. Amount to be entered will be of Refund at Risk.
10. Remarks will be mandatory and adding of documents will be optional.
11. On clicking submit button, ITR Feedback will be submitted and status of the case will be updated from “Under Verification” to “Verified”.
Information Detail View
12. Information Detail view will provide detail of Information underlying the Verification Issue. TSN will be hyperlink which will provide detail of Information like Acknowledgement Number, Date of Filing, Form Type and Filing Type.
TSN Pop up view
Cases where Revised Return is filed by Taxpayer- No further activity can be performed
13. The flag to indicate the fact that revised return has been filed by the Taxpayer for the relevant AY, will be displayed in existing case at Case Detail page to the User. User will not be able to perform any further activities in the case.
View Previous Years HRR Issue in Taxpayer Profile views
14. The user will be able to view the Details of the High-Risk Refund issues flagged on PAN of the Taxpayer in Previous years, if any, in Taxpayer Profile Views under Taxpayer Annual Summary (TAS).
15. User needs to select the relevant Assessment Year filter.
16. User will be able to click on view hyperlink and view the Verification issues of previous year acknowledgement Number wise.
