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CBDT has extended Due date for filing ITRs & Tax Audit Reports under Income Tax Act,1961  from 30.09.2017 to 07.11.2017 for those who were liable to file ITRs by 30.09.17. The Extension was first announced on Twitter at 10.21 PM on 31.10.2017 and later by way of press release on pib.nic.in at 11.35 PM. Further the order was uploaded on https://irsofficersonline.gov.in at 10.21 PM and same was also announced by way of a running message (Tracker News) on https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/ at around 10.40 PM.

Relevant Snapshots are as follows :-

Twitter

Due date extension Tweet

PIB

https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/

Tax Audit Due Date Extension 07th November 2017

Screenshot of Source code of https://irsofficersonline.gov.in showing the time of Publication of order on the website

Screenshot of Source code of income tax efiling website

Here, one more thing to notice is that the Department is yet to upload (Till 11.30 AM on 01st November 2017) the official order extending the due date on the official websites of CBDT for general Taxpayers which are –

  1. https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/
  2. http://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/Pages/default.aspx

https://irsofficersonline.gov.in on which the order was first uploaded is a restricted website and most of its contents are accessible only to Government officers through their login on the website.

Accordingly, it can be seen that the taxpayers were informed of due date extension through Twitter at 10.21 PM at the earliest (Unofficial Medium although official Twitter Handle of department) and by way of press release at 11.35 PM. So through unofficial channels, the Taxpayers were informed of extension just 1 Hour 39 minutes  before the end of due date and through official channel, just 25 PM minutes before the expiry of due date.

Now lets analyse the reason given by CBDT for extension in its press release dated 31.10.2017

A. On consideration of representations from various stakeholders – Can CBDT tell us who has represented for such a short extension and who has represented that due date should be extended at just 25 minute before the expiry of due date of filing return. CBDT should not hide the fact that there own website was not working most of the time on 31.10.2017 and was having outage on other days too from last few days. It is because of this reason only that they have extended the due for such short span of time. CBDT should had extended the due date to at least to 30th November 2017 by considering the representations from various stakeholders.

B. To facilitate ease of compliance by the taxpayers – Extension of due date is not ease of compliance. Ease of compliance is making the system, Law and reporting uncomplicated and making sure that your website works all the time even if all taxpayers submit their returns on last day. You cannot say extension has been given to facilitate ease of compliance by the taxpayers when extension has been given primarily for the deficiency in your own e-filing website. You cannot blame failure of system on Taxpayers by saying that it is because of taxpayers’ tendency to file return on last date. There is nothing wrong as per law in filing return on last date. Further what the government has done to change this tendency of taxpayers? Have they come up with any incentive  for filing return much ahead of due date?  In my opinion there is no ease of compliance but it is only to cover the inefficient income tax server, which is not capable of taking last day load.

In my opinion this short span extension at the last moment is a Cruel Joke with Tax Professionals and Taxpayers  all over India who were working day-night, compromising their health and family to achieve the un-achievable  deadline of Filing ITR and Tax Audit Report by 31st October 2017  and also with  the Trade and Accounting bodies who represented for extension.

An extension well in time and for sufficient time would had been a better move by the Government who is already facing several criticisms for unplanned, hasty and faulty GST implementation.

Some of the Responses on twitter against the last minute extension are as follows :-

Tweet on Shameful last minute insufficient Extension- PIC 1

Tweet on Shameful last minute insufficient Extension- PIC 2

Tweet on Shameful last minute insufficient Extension- PIC 3Tweet on Shameful last minute insufficient Extension- PIC 4

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55 Comments

  1. Suresh Chandra Bhandari says:

    From 1 July 2017 to 20 October 2017, the GST Tax Adviser and Chartered Accountant were engaged in the work of GST. The deadline for quality in audit work should be extended to 30 November 2017

  2. Suresh Chandra Bhandari says:

    From 1 July 2017 to 20 April 2017, the GST Tax Adviser and Chartered Accountant were engaged in the work of GST. The deadline for quality in audit work should be extended to 30 November 2017.

  3. Suresh Chandra Bhandari says:

    १ जुलाई २०१७ से २० अक्टुंबर २०१७ तक जी एस टी कर सलाहकार और चार्टेड अकॉउन्टेंट जी एस टी के कार्य में व्यस्त रहे। ऑडिट कार्य में गुणवत्ता के लिए अंतिम समय सीमा का ३० नवम्बर २०१७ तक विस्तार किया जाना चाहिए .

  4. Suresh Chandra Bhandari says:

    १ जुलाई २०१७ से २० अक्टुंबर २०१७ तक जी एस टी कर सलाहकार और चार्टेड अकॉउन्टेंट जी एस टी के कार्य में व्यस्त रहे। ऑडिट कार्य में गुणवत्ता के लिए अंतिम समय सीमा का ३० नवम्बर २०१७ तक विस्तार किया जाना चाहिए

  5. Venkataraman K says:

    Why the professionals fail to pull the clients to comply with the statutory requirements in advance. They should not entertain those clients and let those clients go to hell. Most of the assesses who rush in the last minute are certainly not law abiding and they make adjustments till end and why should the professionals do take care of those assesee.. The 7 days extension is only to avoid crash of the system due to the last minute rush.

  6. Sivakumar says:

    First of all, we have to thank the Taxguru team to make a platform to express our views. It is highly unreasonable to not extended the due for a sufficient time at least for 20 to 30 days. It is not only the problem of last minute network problem. We are not left with time to complete our works in this period. Even MCA has also extended the time. of course, we are not having time to express our views in detail. any way the God only help our fellow friends struggling in this profession.

  7. K L BHARDWAJ Tax consultant says:

    This is how the Govt of India works. The lat minute extension is of no use to the CAs. Because they might have filed the Returns by not leaving his/her office till 10.35 pm WHAT A SHAME

  8. CA Amit B. says:

    Agree with this article totally, the extension should have been granted earlier as soon as the representation from ICAI was received.

    For those (Bhakts?) saying that us Professionals are at fault, do you understand that we can only Audit when the Books of Accounts are made available to us? We don’t write Books of Accounts, do we?

    Also hardly 5% of Businessman have idea of accounts and they write it themselves, rest all depend on accountants (Qualified and otherwise) for completing their Books of Accounts, these accountants are in short supply. Also all the accountants were busy completing the work for GST deadlines, don’t forget that a good accountant have 10-15 or may be more accounts and you can’t say that businessman should change the accountant as there are none better available then they already have.

    Only other option is for a Businessman is to learn accounting and do the accounting himself, do you think it’s possible? Also not all businessman can afford an accountant, even if they want they won’t be able to as there’s not just enough accountant around. Do ask yourself, do you really think that there are enough accountant to take care of all the businesses as required under GST during the second quarter as was expected?

    I really feel that those who says that we had enough time are either not into practice or not Professionals at all. I mean, why should the compliance be such that the professionals will need to spend the last 15 days before deadline working for 14-18 hours? Does this make any sense? They do have families and they have personal life and they also want to celebrate festivals with them which comes once a year and which is probably the most important for them and their family. Why are the professionals forced to stay at office during these festivals?

    The extension of GSTR 2 date was a joke itself, why extent it so late? They should have extended it on the 10th or 15th itself so that the complete focus of the businesses and accountants as well as the professionals would be on Tax Audit, but no they don’t value us professionals. They take us for granted, which is such a shame and just shows the standing of ICAI with regards to other professional bodies like Medical and Lawyer’s body, they just don’t have any backbone. They don’t represent their members the way they should which is again a shame.

    The whole problem started with the totally failed attempt of the implementation of GST regime. It’s supposed to be Good and Simple Tax, but is it? For me GST should have bought a single form for all transactions with people having turnover of under 5 crore requires to file returns quarterly, that would have promoted ease of business. But no the current GST wants us to file 4 returns per month for every client irrespective of the turnover, how practical is that? Their own officers are unable to upload a return from their offices where they have latest computers and software and access to good quality internet service. Now tell me how many places in India have a good internet speed even today? We still see the board of, “Link Failure” outside every bank at least 5-8 times a month, that’s the infrastructure we are dealing with and yet this government expected us to do the compliance they forced the businesses with, with their implementation of GST.

    I am not one to rant but this extension was a cruel joke and a slap on us professionals and the thing was there was no fault of ours in all this. And I agree with Mr. Tarun Kumar that the server should be capable of bearing the load of total number of taxpayers if it comes to that on the last day, as it’s totally acceptable to file return on the last day and no one should be punished for the incompetence of the server which should have been upgraded by now as this thing keeps happening each year.

    CA Amit

  9. P N PATHRUDU says:

    Friends slowly India moving Democracy to Dictatorship that is proved in our due date extension. we need to oppose immediately otherwise they will fix GSTR-1 (10th) , GSTR-2 (11th). GSTR-3 ( 12th) 44AB Due date 01st April. Unrealistic and impractical government wants to build Rome in one night.

  10. Davidson says:

    It is highly unethical of the department to extend date at the last moment. The department has been doing this earlier also and after the coutrs rapped them, they would extend the date. Are these the aache din????????

  11. Dwarkadas Bhutada says:

    Its shame Shame …
    The professionals are not a independent persons. They will be dependent on his client. If the client get his Tax challan details in the las hour, the professional have to file the return in last hour. There of many such informations which the clients submit on the last date.

  12. ASHWIN GALA says:

    Very True. Let us hope this reaches the highest authority & they take this seriously.
    Right of the assessee to file return at last moment must be boldly established. Specially
    In current scenario where due to several reasons like GST etc.

  13. CA Vishwanath says:

    I think this govt has turned draconian with respect to tax/compliance. They’re missing out on the complexity of our nation, be it with this shabby extension or implementation of GST/demonitisation.

  14. Harish Chander Bhatia says:

    Why we need extension, Are the Chartered Accountants really auditing the accounts on the fag end of the hours or manipulating the figures to cheat the nation and make their clients happy for few bucks of money. Is it the real date of audit which they are putting on audit report. The MoF should come heavily on the ITR filed after 31st Oct and call for the audit papers for all those assessees from their auditor to ascertain the working of the chartered accounts. The truth will come on records, why they needed extension on extension.

  15. MILIND GOTHAL says:

    Government is pulling whole nation to prove how they are better than previous government…..

    They have ideas and vision but no plans. There lack of planning making professional’s and business person’s life more & more difficult.

    More the honest person is penalise more….

    Shame for Last hour extension….inhumanity, cruelty, mockery…because you failed to provide better server we needed extension.

    You failed many times….have better plan next time…

  16. Girdharilal Pareek says:

    why we take chance to file at last moment. There was enough time to file the Tax Audit & ITR, but we are habitual to make it last moment. if everybody goes for last moment, of course the burden to site is excessive than its capacity and we blame to the PM & FM, is not proper.

  17. Ankur Khaitan says:

    CBDT already extended date by 1 month and that too in august. Still we the professional require 1 more month extension. Is that not a shame ?

  18. Yogesh says:

    Shame on Tax Guru for havinf published this kind of headline.
    People are talking as if extensions have never been there. If u look into past u will find previous government giving extension to due date even after the due date. and this has nothing to do with governance and all that.

  19. S.L.Goyal says:

    It is indeed a shame, non-sense and I would say unethical. If you want to give some relief considering that such relief is necessay, then do it well in time and do it gracefully, not as a bhiksha. Why can’t CBDT be proactive and seeing the circumstances which necessitate any such action, take at the right time?

  20. CA Srinivasa H says:

    CBDT Jai ho, FM Mr.Arun Jetly Jai ho and Mr.Modi Jai ho, but CAs, Tax professionals & taxpayer who contribute in constructing the vibrant nation are shame, shame, shame ????????????

  21. Prashanth Shetty says:

    It is shame on all tax professionals who are still filling returns on last minute even after govt has extended due date for 30 days. Why are you blaming government please blame yourself

  22. V Murali says:

    This is how the Govt of India works. The lat minute extension is of no use to the CAs. Because they might have filed the Returns by not leaving his/her office till 10.35 pm

  23. CA Arvind says:

    Our ICAI President also poor guy he doesn’t know the power he has. He just instruct/ request to all the CA member to stop the work of return filling, tax payment nd all other facility then we can see the magic.
    Modi (Ketli) or Jetly dono puri govt ke sath kese aap ko dandwat pranam karenge just to see.
    This is such a shame, but we are also responsible
    equally for that. because we always hard worker we ignore social life family life social life only and only to work hard. Govt always make foolish to we people. In a one whole year almost 64 last date comes and we always remember last date nothing else.
    Our ICAI President also poor guy he doesn’t know the power he has. He just instruct/ request to all the CA member to stop the work of return filling, tax payment nd all other facility then we can see the magic.

    I am as CA carrying small firm in small town where no proper light, No proper internet and by the time both are available the staff is not available.

  24. Santosh Gupta says:

    It is now very hard to estimate whether govt will extension or not. It seems we are working on their mercy only. without reason they can give extension for Gstr2 and there was valid reason still government has not heard the plea of of any one whether ICAI, or any other associations. Govt ka kehna ek hi… mai chaahe ye karu mai chaahe wo karu meri marji…..

  25. CA. S.C.Podder says:

    Blaming CBDT, ICAI , PM, FM, is not fair , due date of filling ITR , TAR was 30-09-2017, that date was extended to 31-10-2017 , Further extension sought due to over burden of Tax Practitioners including CAs. why they were not prepared and advised their clients to submit all the required details to us/ tax practitioners by end July / August 2017 ? what does it indicates we are all dependent on the mercy of our clients. Why adequate / proper steps were not taken before hand by those tax practitioners ? Knowing fully GST returns and implications are there , yet expected trained adequate staff and ourselves were expected that extension will be given at least 2 months , but given only 7days at 11.31 PM on 31-10-2017. to 07-11-2017. We will have to catch a flight / trains leaves at 6 PM , from a particular air port / railway station we should reach there before hand at least with the time schedule as per terms , if train or plain leaves on time and you reach at 5.55 PM , We must miss the Flight / train .
    Hench , don’t bl aim others bl aim our systems of work. to day ( 01-11-2017) we are not working on the subject taking rest. from tomorrow we will see what will happen !!!!!

  26. gowbha says:

    I do accept that the government has already given sufficient time to the tax payers. It is unfortunate that the tax payer and tax professional those who seek extension has to wait until midnight and other professionals like lawyers will never have such trauma,FM expressed that chartered accountants are backbone to the Govt. Some CAs were ready for filing return but due to poor server maintenance they have suffered from 2pm to 11.15 pm. I don’t want to say shame but only feeling bad about our country infrastructure which in bad shape.Let Govt provide good and efficient serverat least in 2018

  27. Prabhakar says:

    GSTR 2 of July ie., just one month return extended for 30 days without no body asking and one year tax return even after begging or screaming, extended for 7 days that too it is for the fault server failure and giving reason as public request. GSTR2 extended even if no body requests, because GSTR1 for July filed returns are 5.4 millions where as GSTR 2 of the same month are just 1..2 million something . So if it is not extended the greatest reform done by the govt will become a flop show. Our country is running behind the whims and fancies of some powerful people.

  28. CA Anu Kant Chawla says:

    Govt. should have respected the ICAI by accepting their request for extension, well in time. If the Institute is requesting the extension, there must be valid reasons to believe. The professionals are so over burdened that they can not be blamed for last minute filing.

  29. Vijay says:

    Dear All,

    How can you shame only government and others when the real culprits are your own customers. Can’t you educate them to have the financials ready well before so as to not to say “Shame on….”. Well when the facial closure is 31st March and even end of October you are fighting in the last minute it is like you brought the patient of cancer when it reached Level 5 and no one is at help… Shame on all business people for their last minute rush…

  30. abdul says:

    Govt. is expecting the people to bring into proper system. But they don’t pre-plan and ultimately every thing is mess up. GST system was nott properly pre-planned and still they are extending the time even for july-17 month return.

  31. Nimmala Sheshadri says:

    IT IS GOOD, SOME BREATHING TIME HAD BEEN GIVEN TO PROFESSIONALS, WHO ARE PRACTISING GST AND INCOME TAX. I APPRECIATE THE DECISION OF THE GOVERNMENT. THANK GOD.

  32. rajiv mangrulkar says:

    ENTIRE TAX LAWS – DIRECT AND INDIRECT (GST) LAWS HAVE BECOME ADJOURNMENT LAWS- THANKS TO LAWYER FINANCE MINISTER MR. JAITELY AT THE HELM -SUSHASAN…………?BUSINESSMAN /ECONOMIST/RETIRED CIVIL SERVANT HEADING FINANCE MINISTRY IS NEED OF THE HOUR.IS NAMO SIR LISTENING…………

  33. Nanda Kumar Madathil says:

    I dont think there is anything to be ashamed of …as tax practitioners we all know how strange our clients behave despite our pressure to furnish details for compliance … Govt had already given 1 month extentsion and naturally Govt wanted to ensure maximum funds come to them … if the govt gives again more time and inform the public before 31 st oct ,,, again the tax payers will delay submission of returns … I think govt acted proactively ,,,

  34. M S RAGHAVENDRA says:

    WE HAVE TO B VERY SHAMEFUL THAT WE ALL FOLLOWING / MAKING THEIR PROJECTS LIKE DEMONETIZATION AND GST TO BE SUCCESSFUL. THESE GUYS ARE PLAYING WITH US. SHAME ON FM & CBDT

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