Sanction authority centralization for reopening assessments shifts approval to Additional/Joint Commissioners, reducing prior higher level oversight.
Clause 284 appoints Additional Commissioners, Additional Directors, Joint Commissioners, or Joint Directors as the sole authorities to grant sanction for notices under sections 280 and 281, replacing the earlier tiered sanction regime. It removes temporal thresholds and higher level approvals formerly applied to older or complex cases, centralizes decision making, omits explanatory and delegation provisions present in the prior framework, and may therefore streamline administration while raising concerns about reduced oversight, interpretive ambiguity, and possible increased litigation.

Giving effect to appellate findings: reassessment notices may issue despite limitation, subject to safeguards preventing reopening time barred years.
Clause 283 (Income Tax Bill, 2025) and Section 150 (Income tax Act, 1961) permit issuance of assessment, reassessment or recomputation notices to give effect to a finding or direction in appellate, revisional or judicial orders, explicitly including tribunals and Approving Panel directions in the 2025 Bill. Both provisions preserve a limitation safeguard: notices cannot be issued if, when the original order (or reference to the Approving Panel) was made, the relevant year's assessment was already time barred. Notices must show a direct nexus to the operative finding or direction and remain subject to procedural requirements.

Limitation periods for reassessment notices extended and a minimum cooling-off period introduced, retaining high-value reopening threshold.
Clause 282 restructures limitation periods for notices under sections 280 and 281 by extending both standard and extended windows for reopening, retaining a high-value threshold that requires the Assessing Officer to possess books, documents or other evidence of substantial escapement, and by introducing a mandatory minimum cooling-off period before any notice may be issued; it does not explicitly replicate earlier exclusions for time spent in show-cause proceedings, court stays, or special provisions for foreign assets, creating potential interpretive gaps.

Pre-notice hearing requirement: show cause with disclosed information, supervisory approval required before reassessment notices.
Clause 281 requires that where the AO has information suggesting income has escaped assessment, the AO must serve a show cause notice accompanied by that information, allow the assessee to reply within the period specified, and, after considering the record and any reply, obtain prior approval of the specified authority before passing an order on whether to issue a notice under section 280. The clause omits explicit timelines, does not define the specified authority within the clause, and provides broader exceptions to the pre-notice requirement.

Reassessment notice reform: information-driven reopening with prescribed timelines and mandatory higher-level approval to ensure procedural safeguards.
Clause 280 requires the AO to issue a notice with a copy of the relevant order before reassessment, sets a maximum three-month period to furnish a prescribed, verified return, treats timely returns as equivalent to original returns while disallowing that status for belated filings, mandates that issuance be predicated on "information" suggesting escapement, and requires prior approval of a specified authority where information derives from centralized schemes, Approving Panel directions, or judicial/quasi-judicial orders.

Reassessment powers expand to permit assessment of escaped income and collateral issues even where certain procedural steps were missed.
Clause 279 empowers the Assessing Officer to assess or reassess income and recompute losses, depreciation and other allowances where income escaping assessment is identified, substitutes "tax year" for "assessment year," and, while making AO's powers subject to sections 280-286, permits assessment of other issues that emerge during proceedings even if specified procedural sections were not complied with, thereby prioritising substantive tax determination over technical procedural infirmities.

Timing of income recognition: interest on compensation taxed on receipt; escalation claims taxed on reasonable certainty of realisation.
Clause 278 deems interest on compensation or enhanced compensation taxable in the tax year of actual receipt, treats escalation claims and export incentives as income when reasonable certainty of realisation is achieved, and taxes specified incomes under section 2(49)(w) on receipt if not earlier charged, thereby aligning taxability with receipt or demonstrable certainty and aiming to prevent timing gaps while leaving factual application issues like allocation and evidentiary standards to further guidance.

Inventory valuation rules require ICDS aligned costing, inclusion of statutory levies, and category wise securities valuation for tax computation.
Inventory and securities for tax purposes must be valued in accordance with ICDS: inventory at the lower of actual cost or net realisable value, purchases, sales and inventory adjusted to include any tax, duty, cess or fee actually paid or incurred to bring goods or services to present location and condition; illiquid or unquoted securities at actual cost and regularly quoted securities at the lower of cost or NRV, with securities compared category wise and special treatment for scheduled banks and public financial institutions subject to prudential guidelines.

Method of accounting: mandatory consistency and binding tax standards lead to AO power to assess by best judgment.
Clause 276 permits either the cash or mercantile system for computing income provided the system is regularly followed, authorises the Central Government to notify binding Income Computation and Disclosure Standards for classes of assessees or income, and empowers the Assessing Officer to disregard accounts and make a best judgment assessment where accounts are incorrect or incomplete, the accounting method is not regularly followed, or notified ICDS are not applied.

Dispute Resolution Panel mechanism: statutory draft-order review with binding, reasoned directions and strict timelines for tax variations.
Clause 275 establishes a DRP mechanism requiring the AO to forward draft assessment orders with prejudicial variations to eligible assessees; assessees have thirty days to accept or object. The DRP, a collegium of three senior officers, may issue written, reasoned directions (confirming, reducing, or enhancing variations) within nine months; such directions are binding on the AO. The clause updates cross-references, vests rule-making power in the Board, and excludes specified proceedings and persons, while omitting an explicit statutory scheme for faceless DRP proceedings.

Impermissible avoidance arrangements: GAAR procedure mandates reference, Approving Panel review, and binding directions with safeguards.
Clause 274 creates a multi-stage GAAR procedure: the Assessing Officer may refer suspected impermissible avoidance arrangements to the Principal Commissioner/Commissioner, who must notify the assessee and allow objections; absent or unsatisfactory responses permit directions or escalation to an independent Approving Panel. The Approving Panel, composed of a High Court judge, a senior revenue officer, and an academic, may summon evidence, hold hearings, and issue binding directions within set timelines; such directions are final under the Act, subject only to constitutional judicial review.

Faceless assessment set as statutory default under proposed bill, expanding electronic non-contact tax assessments and procedural framework.
Clause 273 makes faceless assessment the statutory default for specified assessments, empowers the Board to define applicability, establishes a National Faceless Assessment Centre with Assessment, Verification, Technical and Review Units, assigns distinct functions to each unit to minimize discretion, mandates electronic communications via the NFAC, and contemplates transfers to the jurisdictional officer where faceless procedure is unsuitable, with procedural details to be prescribed by the Board.

Supervisory power of Joint Commissioner permits binding directions in pending assessments, with a hearing before any prejudicial direction.
Clause 272 empowers the Joint Commissioner to intervene in any pending assessment by suo motu action, AO reference, or assessee application, to call for records and issue directions that are binding on the Assessing Officer where deemed necessary or expedient; no direction prejudicial to the assessee may be issued without an opportunity of being heard, while directions prescribing lines of investigation are not treated as prejudicial.

Best judgment assessment: requirement of notice and opportunity to be heard before AO determines taxpayer's liability under reformed assessment framework.
Clause 271 creates a mechanism for best judgment assessment where the AO may assess income or loss when an assessee defaults on filing returns or complying with statutory notices; the AO must consider all relevant materials, issue a show cause notice affording an opportunity of being heard (subject to an exception where an earlier notice suffices), and determine the sum payable based on his best judgment, with certain interpretative ambiguities left for administrative or judicial clarification.

Assessment procedure modernization strengthens mandatory intimation and centralized processing, enhancing taxpayer engagement and procedural certainty.
Clause 270 modernises return assessment by allowing specified prima facie adjustments (arithmetical errors, incorrect claims apparent from the return, late loss set-off, audit discrepancies, late deductions) only after mandatory written or electronic intimation and consideration of the assessee's response; acknowledges deemed intimation where no adjustment arises; fixes an outer deadline for intimation; permits authorised officers to select cases for scrutiny within a prescribed period and requires written assessment orders after evidence is considered; and provides safeguards for exempt entities and non-profits while enabling centralised, technology-driven processing schemes.

Faceless tax administration: broad power to frame schemes and modify statutory application for digitalised tax processes.
Clause 532 authorises the Central Government to make schemes by notification for any purpose under the Income Tax Bill, 2025, aiming to enhance efficiency, transparency, and accountability by reducing taxpayer-official interface and optimising resource utilisation. For implementation, the Government may issue notifications that disapply or modify provisions of the Act, and may amend schemes previously framed under the 1961 Act; every such notification must be laid before each House of Parliament. The Board may be empowered to make schemes subject to control of the Central Government.

Valuation references: statutory regime for Valuation Officer reports, with procedural safeguards and enforceable reporting timelines.
Clause 269 empowers the Assessing Officer to refer estimation of value of any asset, property, or investment to a Valuation Officer, who must consider all evidence, provide an opportunity to be heard, inspect premises with prescribed notice, and submit a valuation report to the AO and assessee; the VO may make a best judgment assessment if the assessee fails to cooperate and may rectify mistakes apparent from the record, while the AO may use the report after affording the assessee a hearing.

Inquiry before assessment: AO empowered to call for documents and order special audits, with senior approval and procedural safeguards.
Clause 268 creates a structured regime for Inquiry before assessment granting the Assessing Officer power to call for returns, accounts, documents and statements of assets and liabilities, subject to prior senior approval for intrusive disclosures and temporal limits on record production. It authorises special audits and inventory valuations with nominated professionals, mandates standardised forms and verifications, provides time limits for reports with limited extensions, secures the assessee's right to be heard before use of inquiry material in assessment, and shifts audit/valuation expenses to the Central Government under prescribed guidelines.

Updated return taxation requires prior payment of tax, interest, fees and graded additional tax before filing an updated return.
Clause 267 requires prior payment of tax, interest, fee and a graded additional income-tax before filing an updated return, prescribes allowable credits and reliefs to determine net liability (including advance tax, TDS/TCS, foreign tax reliefs and specified tax credits), treats refunds and earlier credits to prevent double benefit, mandates proof of payment with the updated return, clarifies interest computation on assessed tax under the new code, and empowers the administration to issue implementation guidelines subject to a time-limited sunset and parliamentary oversight.

Self-assessment obligation: pay tax, interest and fees before filing return, with proof, or face default consequences.
Clause 266 requires payment, before filing the return, of any tax payable together with interest and fee and proof of such payment; payments short are appropriated in the order fee, then interest, then tax; interest is computed after reducing advance tax, TDS/TCS and specified reliefs and credits; ''assessed tax'' is defined as tax on returned income reduced by those credits and reliefs; failure to pay renders the assessee an assessee in default and triggers recovery and penal consequences without prejudice to other liabilities.