Income Tax Department is one of the important part of Ministry of Finance, Government of India. In 1860, it started working with the implementation of first Income Tax Act. After implementation of this Act, people became aware of the actual meaning of Income Tax and motto of Income Tax Department. Department followed this act for five years after which, in 1865, second act came into force. There was a major change in this act relative to first Act. With this Act, the department started working with a new concept of Agriculture Income.
But the original story of Income Tax Department came into being in 1922 with the implementation of Income Tax Act -1922. It showed a major change from the last act by imposing the charge in the year of assessment on the income of last year. It also declared that tax rates would be announced by Finance Acts.
After this, in 1956 Government revised this act and did few changes keeping the original in its format. For its review government formed a committee. This committee made few changes and submitted Income Tax Bill in Lok Sabha in April 1961. The then President, accepted this bill on 13th Sep, 1961. Since 1961, our government has been using this Act for running our system.
Income Tax Department of India has faced so many changes after its establishment, some of which are as follows:-
| Year
of Events |
Events |
| 1939 |
Appellate functions became separate from
inspecting functions and a class of AACs officers came into existence.
|
| 1940 |
Directorate of Income-tax inspection came
into existence. |
| 1941 |
Central charge created at Kolkata. |
| 1943 |
Special Investigation Branches set up. |
| 1952 |
Directorate of Inspection - Investigation
came into existence and Income-tax inspector was declared as an I.T.
authority. |
| 1953 |
Estate duty act implemented. |
| 1954 |
Internal audit income implemented. |
| 1963 |
Separate board of direct taxed formed. |
| 1966 |
Functional scheme implemented.
|
| 1971 |
Direct taxes enquiry report was received. |
| 1980 |
Hotel reciept act came into force. |
| 1986 |
The I.T. act and W.T. act amended by
taxation laws. |
| 1990 |
Gift tax bill introduced. |
| 1991 |
Interest tax act revived. |
| 1997 |
Decrease in income tax rates. |
| 2002 |
Computerised return system started in all
over India. |
