Dear Ajay,

Thanks for writing your query to us!

To become an Income Tax Officer, one should first of all enter the Income Tax Department as Income Tax Inspector or Tax Assistant. You can become Income Tax Officer through competitive exam.

1. First step required for joining as Income Tax Inspector or Tax Assistant is to qualify Combined Graduate Level examination. After that, personal interview is there for Income Tax Inspector post and Skill test is there for Tax Assistant post. Interested aspirants can apply for this All India Level competitive exam either online or offline.

2. Give departmental exams for promotion

Exam:
The Staff Service Commission (SSC) conducts an entrance exam annually for the recruitment of candidates in the income tax department. Candidates who are applying for the post of Income tax officer must appear for the SSC exam.

The basic qualification required to apply for the SSC is graduation (any stream) from University Grants Commission (UGC) recognized University. Maximum age limit specified to apply for the written examination is 27 years while minimum age limit is 18 years. Upper age relaxation of 3 years will be given for OBC candidates while 5 years will be given for SC/ST candidates.

For more details, visit: http://www.ssconline.nic.in.

Hope this information is useful.

Best Wishes for your bright career,

Apurva Kumar Pandya, PhD

Dear Aspirant,

Very glad to see a query like yours. Hope you are not thinking of this based on any news about income tax department raids, movies, etc.

Aiming for being an Income Tax officer is fantastic. Ensure that you do a very good graduation preferably of commerce and try to master the Tax laws at your graduation level.

Preparing for the UPSC competitive exam for getting into Tax department is very crucial and you may also join a coaching class if available in your city or there are many online courses and tests available through which you can practice good amount and become confident.

I would also suggest that also keep other options open till you finally qualify in the competitive exams. After graduation, I would suggest that you may do courses like Diploma in Tax Laws (DTL), LL.B, from a recognised University and Institute. This will enable you to join corporate in case you do not find your self get selected in the Govt.

Best wishes