Raksha Bandhan of Taxpayers!

Arjun (Fictional Character): Krishna, how are the tax departments and taxpayers going to celebrate the blissful festival of Raksha bandhan this COVID period?

Krishna (Fictional Character): Arjuna, uptill now, this year 2020 has been a lot distressful for all of us. But now, here is the festival of Raksha bandhan which would bring joy and blessings in disguise. The tax departments are discharging their role by taking the responsibility and being compassionate for taxpayers as a brother would do for their sisters. Let’s discuss what gifts the tax departments have for the taxpayers on this occasion.

Arjun (Fictional Character): Krishna, what gifts do the GST Department have for their small taxpayers i.e having turnover below Rs. 5 Cr. (small sisters)?

Krishna (Fictional Character): Arjuna, the GST department has taken enough care of their taxpayers by extending the due dates for GST compliances due to the underlying pandemic situation. The department has waived the late fees in several circumstances, for small taxpayers (i.e. they are happy like the small sisters who have got their rakhi gift) and reduced the late fees & interest wherever necessary to relieve the taxpayers.

Arjun (Fictional Character): Krishna, what gifts do the GST Department have for their big taxpayers i.e having turnover above Rs. 5 Cr. (elder sisters)?

Krishna (Fictional Character): Arjuna, taxpayers having turnover above Rs. 5 Cr. are unhappy as they have not got the gift of late fees & interest relief. But the GST department has another gift for large taxpayers (i.e. those having turnover above Rs. 500 Cr.) is, the implementation of e-invoicing from 1^st October 2020, which would bring more transparency in sales reporting, automate data entry, reduction in errors and mismatches, ease the ITC headache, capture sales related details in the system instantaneously and improve compliance. The department has also notified the revised format/schema for e-invoice under GST by replacing existing Form GST INV-1. 

Arjun (Fictional Character): Krishna, what gifts do the Income Tax department have for their taxpayers?

Krishna (Fictional Character): Arjuna, income tax department’s gift shall prove of utmost utility to the taxpayers, as they have extended the various due dates for filing income-tax returns. The due dates for filing belated income tax returns for A.Y. 2019-20 had been extended from 31st July 2020 to 30^th September 2020. Further, the due date for income tax return for the FY 2019-20 (AY 2020-21) has also been extended to November 30, 2020. Consequently, the date for furnishing tax audit report has also been extended to 31st October, 2020.

Arjun (Fictional Character): Krishna, what should the taxpayer learn from this?

Krishna (Fictional Character): Arjuna, our government has now decided to unlock the lockdown situation to promote regularizing the businesses those were turning inoperative due to lockdown. Still taxpayers are afraid of their security. As all sisters expect that their brothers would protect them in every situation, the taxpayers also expect from the tax departments to protect them in this COVID-19 pandemic situation by easing some stringent compliance provisions. The tagline for this Raksha bandhan shall be, “Surakshit Rehna hai, to Bandhan me Raho”!