Income Tax Officer Career Information

The Apex body of the Income Tax Department is the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), which is manned by the officers of the Indian Revenue Service. This body is the administrative head of the Income Tax Department and functions under the Finance Ministry of India.

The Income tax department operates out of various geographical regions, which are a collection of states. For e.g. the North West region comprises of Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Chandigarh; the Western region consists of the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. You will be working in any of the following directorates:

Directorate of Taxes Your immediate work as an income tax officer, will involve assessment and collection of taxes like Income Tax Act, Wealth Tax, etc. You will verify that the accounts for private individuals, companies, industries, educational institutions, etc have been audited accurately. As an income tax officer have to see to it that all the proper taxes as applicable have been levied and also grant exemptions wherever required by law.

Directorate of Appeals Here you will look at all the appeals filed for a refund or reassessment. As an income tax officer will have to decide if the case merits an appeal. You will have to redo the entire auditing procedure. In the event that the government has deducted more tax than it is entitled to, you will have to ensure that the extra amount is refunded as soon as possible.

Directorate of Investigation In this department as an income tax officer you will be snooping around to find all elusive 'black money'- the term commonly associated with undeclared wealth. You will identify individuals and organisations withholding money or owning assets like cars, bungalows, etc. which are above and beyond the reach of their declared income. As an income tax officer you will then conduct surprise raids to recover the wealth, which could be in the form of cash, jewellery or immovable property such as a house.

At the senior level, you will be working in the Central Board of Direct Taxes. Here you will plan tax legislations as per the directive of the government and over see their implementation. You will also need to come up with new and innovative schemes like VDIS (Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme) to encourage more people to pay their taxes and disclose their hidden wealth.

Job Opportunity

The main training centre for Income tax officers is The National Academy of Direct Taxes (NADT) located at Nagpur. Officers of the IRS (Indian Revenue Service) join here after completing their initial training at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Musorrie.

Here you will be provided in depth training in direct tax laws, accountancy, administrative rules and procedures and basic understanding of other relevant laws. Training will also be provided on software packages such as Lotus Smart Suite, MS-Office, Visual Fox Pro, Tally etc will also be exposed to modern managerial concepts as well as skills and techniques of effective investigation.

As an Income Tax Officer, you will then be posted in any of the different directorates in the various regions. Along with your work you will be provided refresher and advanced courses at The Direct Taxes Regional Training Institute (DTRTI) in your region. The programme here is conducted in the form of workshops, case studies, group discussion, seminars and panel discussions to encourage field officers to come up with ideas and solutions.

Career Prospects

If you join in as an Income tax inspector, you can rise up to the level of an income tax officer grade II and then to grade I.

If you join in as Assistant commissioner of Income tax, your career growth is as follows:

• Joint/ Additional Commissioner of Income Tax: after 9 years of service

• Commissioner of Income Tax: after 14 years of service

• Joint/ Deputy Director of Income Tax: between 15 to 18 years of service

• Director/Chief Commissioner of Income Tax: after 18 years of service

At the level of chief commissioner of income tax, you can get the opportunity to serve as a member of the Central Board of Direct Taxes. Here you can scale up to be the chairman of this board, which is a very prestigious post.

After retirement at any level, you will be well sought-after by various industries as a consultant.