The decision was taken by the FBR Board in Council during its meeting held a day earlier. Under the new system, tax audits and assessments will be conducted through a computerized, risk-based mechanism.
Previously, when a taxpayer’s return was selected for audit, the taxpayer would generally have to deal with a designated officer at a specific office. Under the new arrangement, cases will be selected through an automated risk-based system and assigned electronically to officers anywhere in the country.
Taxpayers will not know which officer has been assigned their case, while officers will have no role in deciding which cases are allocated to them.
Each case will pass through three separate stages. One officer will conduct the audit, another will carry out the assessment, while a third will review the quality of the work before any decision is issued. This arrangement is intended to ensure that no single officer exercises control over a taxpayer’s case from beginning to end.
All notices, responses and hearings will be handled electronically through the FBR’s Inland Revenue Service (IRS) system. Where physical verification or tax collection is legally required, the task will be carried out by a separate field team.
The National Faceless Centre will be headed by a Chief Commissioner Inland Revenue and will have separate departments for faceless audits, faceless assessments, quality control and field operations. A Programme Management Unit has already been established to oversee implementation.
The FBR expects the new system to make tax proceedings faster, more transparent and more consistent for taxpayers across the country.