FBR likely to set up Centralised National Appeal Unit

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is likely to set-up a Centralised National Appeal Unit (CNAP) for reviewing appeal cases filed by the taxpayers against the audit findings of the tax department where cases have been selected for audit by the Board's Audit Task Force.
Sources told Business Recorder here on Thursday that the CNAP would be headed by FBR Member Legal to thoroughly review the appeal cases as a result of the audit conducted by the Audit Task Force. So far, the FBR has yet not established the CNAP. The CNAP would play an important role in hearing of appeal cases where the registered person has not agreed with the findings of the audit being selected and supervised by the Centralised Audit Task Force.
According to sources, the Board would carry out parametric selection of cases for audit which would be monitored at all stages by the Centralised Tax Audit Task Force. The Centralised Tax Audit Task Force has been given prime responsibility to monitor all stages of audit starting from issuance of notices to completion of the audit. The FBR will first select cases for audit on the basis of refined parameters for corporate sector and AOPs. In the second stage, the cases of business individuals and withholding agents would also be selected for audit.
The data of the selected cases would be entered in the Tax Audit Management System (TAMS) for electronic transmission of information of cases to the relevant RTO. One of the important tasks of the Centralised Tax Audit Task Force is to ensure timely completion of the audit of cases selected on the basis of parameters. The Task Force would also ensure quality of audit on the basis of available records.
The Task Force would exclusively deal with selection of risk-based audit on the basis and analysis of information available with the FBR's Data Warehouse. The FBR has also decided that sample checking of cases would also be done to analyse the findings of the audit vis-à-vis parameters of selection of cases.
The sample checking of cases would result in keeping a close watch on the audit being conducted on the basis of parameters. The Centralised Tax Audit Task Force will also provide opportunity to the registered units to file complaints against the audit officials in cases of any harassment, if necessary. In this way, Centralised Tax Audit Task Force would be able to ensure electronic monitoring of the audit. At this stage, taxpayers would be able to file appeal at the level of the CNAP.