Assessment of Income Tax Return

Self-assessment is the process of filing tax return to the income tax department by accumulating the income details and adjusting the tax amount by availing reliefs such as exemptions & deductions. Self-assessment tax must be paid before filing of income tax return.

In summary assessment, the information submitted by an individual is cross-checked against the information tax department has access to and the correctness of the return is verified by the tax department. The return gets processed online & small adjustments such as arithmetical errors, disallowances, incorrect claims are done automatically.

The assessment of income tax return is conducted by accessing officer (AO) not below the rank of an income tax officer authorized by the income tax department. The purpose of regular assessment is to ensure that the individual has neither understated the income or overstated any expense or loss or underpaid any tax. In this case, the intimation has been sent by the tax department to the tax payer containing information whether he or she has to pay more tax, pay interest or refund is payable by the tax department.

In this case, the assessing officer authorized by the income tax department arrives at a best and honest decision without being partial to anyone as per income tax law.