Audit, Assessment & Inspection
When the department looks at your books
When the department looks at your books.
Straight from CBIC
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There are several different things people all call ‘an audit’, and they carry very different powers. A departmental audit under Section 65 is a scheduled examination at your premises with 15 days’ notice. A special audit under Section 66 is ordered when the officer thinks your valuation or credit is complex enough to need a nominated Chartered Accountant.
Assessment is separate again. Self-assessment is the normal case. Best-judgment assessment happens when you don’t file at all, and the officer estimates – almost always unfavourably. That estimate can be withdrawn if you file the return within 30 days of the order.
Inspection, search and seizure under Section 67 are the coercive end, and require a written authorisation recording reasons to believe. The reasons matter: they are the usual ground on which such actions are successfully challenged.
Worked example
Why filing late still beats not filing
| Returns not filed for the period | Best-judgment assessment issued | Officer estimates the liability |
| Estimated demand | ₹11,00,000 | Based on the department’s assumptions |
| Return filed within 30 days of the order | Assessment order withdrawn | Actual liability: ₹2,40,000 |
Filing inside that 30-day window turned an ₹11 lakh estimate back into the ₹2.4 lakh actually due. It is one of the most valuable deadlines in GST, and one of the least known.
The mistakes that cost people money
Not theoretical risks — the ones we actually see land on clients’ desks.
Handing over records without noting what was taken. You are entitled to copies and to a proper seizure record.
Missing the 30-day window to displace a best-judgment assessment by filing the return.
Treating an audit notice as an invitation to reconstruct records. Reconciling honestly beats presenting something that will not survive cross-checking.
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Audit, Assessment & Inspection — the complete guide
9 pages covering all 19 provisions, with the plain-language explanation and practice notes for each. Print it, keep it, share it with your accountant.
Every provision on audit, assessment & inspection
All 19 of them, each with a plain-language explanation and the full legal text.
CGST Act, 2017 · 14
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