Western Maharashtra Tax Practitioners’ Association requested that the due date for filing tax audit report for A.Y. 2020-21 be extended to 28th February 2021 & for filing Income tax return be extended to 31st March 2021.
Relevant Text of their representation to Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, The Hon’ble Union Finance Minister, Government of India, North Block, New Delhi is as follows-
Extension of due dates for filing Tax Audit reports &Income Tax returns for A Y 2020 –21 regarding
Dear Madam,
Our Association represents Tax Consultants, Advocates, Chartered Accountants, Company Secretaries & Cost Accountants practicing in direct & indirect taxes from whole Maharashtra state. Presently, we have around 1500 plus active members from the state. Our Association always represents the concerns and problems faced by these members before the respective tax authorities. This initiative of our Association has proved beneficial for the tax administering authorities, our members and ultimately the tax payers at large.
Due to situation of COVID-19 & subsequent lockdown the situation in the country has been totally disturbed. Life of the countrymen has been totally changed & it could not come to normalcy due to various situations existing all over the country.
The no of COVID positive patients in Maharashtra have now started reducing. Though, at every level the efforts to fight out with the pandemic are on. It is also the fact that offices of all tax professionals could start after Unlock-2 phase after 1st July 2020. Though, it is so these offices still could not resume to its full speed as number staff of tax professionals not residing near the place of work but other places have not came back & have not resumed their duties in the offices of tax professionals due to non – availability of mess, hostels at their work places & the most important is fear of the pandemic is still on in the minds of people.
The Central government, all State governments & the local bodies have administered the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in an excellent manner all over the countryerefore, the whole country has been saved from the phase of community transmission- he pandemic.
We have faced 2 1/2 months of total lockdown in the whole country. The government has started unlock phases from 1st June 2020. Presently, the country is passing through the 6th phase of unlock after the pandemic. The spread & severity of the Corona Virus has not been reduced. Due to this several restrictions are still continuing in all parts of the country, movement of life is still restricted. Everyone is hopeful that the situation could only normalize after the discovery of vaccine to the virus which is expected soon.
it is also. admitted fact that many tax professionals, accountants of various organizations, businessmen, person responsible of financial affairs in various organisation have been reported COVID-19 positive & hence their work has been hampered. Fear among all class of people of getting infected by the virus results in non–travelling, reduction in effective work time. All these facts results in not functioning / partly functioning of several industrial undertakings, private offices, business units working partly / working from home or not at all working. This includes the offices of Chartered Accountants & Tax Practitioners also.
1. It must be accepted that due to fear of COVID – 19 & also due to actual suffering with the decease many accountants, businessmen & Tax professionals could not pay full attention to the requirement for getting the accounts completed & get them audited. In some cases part records were submitted to the tax auditors but allied information is pending due to various reasons.
2. Due to this the details required for finalising the accounts, filling the tax audit report, payment of balance tax liability could not be completed intime. Travelling to the place of audit of the concerned assessee has also become difficult for the tax professionals & their staff.
3. These hindrances are making it difficult for the Assessee, Chartered Accountants & Tax Professionals to comply with the extended due dates.
4. Your authority was very kind to condiser the fact & extend the due dates as follows:
| Particulars | Original due date | Extended due date |
| For Non audit assessee | 31st July | 31st December |
| For filing tax audit report | 30th September |
31st December |
| For Compulsory audit under other Acts, Tax audit cases & partners of audit firm assessee | 31st October | 31st January |
5. Due dates for other compliances are overlapping:
1. You will appreciate that extended due date for filing Income tax returns & revised returns for A.Y. 2019-20 was 30th September 2020, which was further extended to 30th November 2020 by your Honour for the above reasons only.
2. The due date for filing of GST Annual return Form 9 for f. y. 2018-19 is extended to 31st December 2020 from 31st October 2020.
3. The due date for filing of GST Audit in from 9-C for f. y. 2018-19 is extended to 31stDecember 2020 from 31stOctober 2020.
4. The due date of holding AGM for corporates has been extended to 31st December 2020 by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Therefore, the statutory audit for Companies could also be completed after 30th November 2020.
5. The due date for Income – Tax scrutiny assessments for A.Y. 2018 -19 ending on 31st December 2020 has been extended to 31st March 2021.
6. The due date for Vivad se Vishwas Scheme has been extended to 31st December
All these dates are overlapping each other & compliances thereof by the tax professionals have been very difficult as the priority of each other overlaps. It is therefore requested that the due date for tax audit be extended to 28th February 2021 & the due date for filing Income – tax return to 31st March 2021 at the earliest. This is necessary as presently fraternity of Tax professionals & business entities are under terrible pressure of getting the above compliances done. If this is done immediately the tax professional fraternity & the business class will have clarity of due dates so that they could work more efficiently & could be able to give quality compliances sought by law.
6. Delay in release of return filing utilities:
The utilities for filing income – tax returns were not available on the government sites. Consequently the softwarethereof also could not be released. Following is the chart showing release dates & latest updates of the respective Income–Tax returns filing utilities:
| Sr. No. | ITR Form No. |
Scheme Release Date |
Scheme Updating Date |
Utility Updating Date |
| 1. | ITR 1 | June 2, 2020 | June 15, 2020 | July 8, 2020 |
| 3 | ITR 3 | July 31. 2020 I | August 29, 2020 | September 4, 2020 |
| 4 | ITR 4 | June 5, 2020 | July 8, 2020 | August 12, 2020 |
| 5 | ITR 5 | August 25, 2020 | August 25, 2020 | |
| 6 | ITR 6 | September 22, 2020 |
October 1, 2020 (Excel) Java utility not released | |
| 7 | ITR 7 | September 3, 2020 |
September 3, 2020 |
The utilities for the Income–tax returns are required to be released on 1st April every year. This is the consistent non – compliance on the part of CBDT officials & the finance department that these utilities are not released on the required date in spite of the various directions from various High Courts from time to time. This year the pandemic has worsened the situation of releasing these utilities.
7. There is additional requirement of filling certain information which was not required in earlier forms.
1. Details of cash portion in Gross receipts,
2. Details of cash portion in Gross payments both as required u/s 44 AB (a), Tax paid u/s 92 CE,
8. Change in forms of Tax audit reports: Vide Notification No. GSR 610 (E) dated 1st October 2020 there are certain changes in tax audit forms applicable from 1st October 2020. This further requires time to comply with the legal requirements by the tax professionals for proper compliance.
It is therefore urged that the due date for filing tax audit report be extended to 28th February 2021 & for filing Income tax return be extended to 31st March 2021. The notification to this effect may be drawn at the earliest in order to comply with the legal requirements by the professionals & the business fraternity in a qualitative way without pressure.
We are eagerly waiting for your favourable consideration of the matter at an early moment.
You are requested to do the needful in the matter after verifying the facts brought to your notice as above.
Download Representation by Western Maharashtra Tax Practitioners’ Association in PDF Format
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Extend must need .. Why CA association not filed case in Supreme Court ?.. IT & GST department only listen the language of Court !!!!!
Due to various factors which are beyond the controlof the assessees and representatives the audit of accounts and filing of ROI are getting delayed. Hence the Govt. has to extend the dates of filing ROI as sought by the Association, which will be of great help to the tax paying public, who have suffered heavily due to the COVID – 19 pandamic.
All the due due should be extend for 2 month at least because working is not yet normal . please extend all due date
R/SIR,
PLZ EXTEND AUDIT DUE DATES 28 FEB 2021 AND ITR FILLING DATE 31/0/3/2021. DUE TO BANK MERGER STATEMENTS ARE ALSO NOT AVAILABLE. COVID 19 SITUATION, OTHER TRAVELLING PROBLEMS ROAD/TRAINS ETC
We request Hon’ble thirumathy.nirmala madam to take positive approach.
Hon’ble Sir/ Madam
Due to this pandemic situation many peoples are affected physically as well as mentally. We are also getting poor response from Taxpayer.
It is earnestly request to extend the dste till 31st March 2021
All the due dates must be extended and notification for extension should come at earliest. We being tax professionals are facing a lot of pressure and unable to handle it.
CA Subhash Agrawal
In Mumbai, still no local train(Mumbai lifeline) services so travel of staff/clients/accountants is time consuming-tiresome -No revenue loss it is administrative relief in current extraordinary situation- Request early announcement by15-12-20 to reduce our EVERY DAY tension ,blood pressure –
-PL PL extend last date of Income tax-Gst-Roc etc from 31-12-20to 31-3-2021
It may be noted that the online sites which I have tried while e filing return is not accessing the updation I had made last year..eg. adhar link, name changed copies which I had supplied to the Bangalore return processing centers. This was reflected in e returns released online. And also the otp which we request is , as stated on the screne, going to the old mobile numbers which was registered earlier.. ling back. But as far as I know, I had updated all the numbers Last year itself.
Dear All, Thanks for representing us, Government should extend the due dates of respective submissions, otherwise it will be mare impossible for the tax professionals to comply with the due dates announced earlier, even a professional having 50 to 60 cases will not be able to file the forms as in present 70 to 80% cases are still pending due to COVID -19 pandemic
we hope good result will come soon
Thanks for Representing with detailed explanation to Honourable FM of India and hope good result will come soon
Req tax guru to take up issue with PMO CBDT or finance minister to extend time to file income tax return for assessment year 20/21 finance year 19/20 up to 30/04/2021 for income tax return audit or no Audi
ITR and TAR is necessary for this Financial Year2019-20 asst.yearv2020-2021 up to 31-03-2021 due to COVID19 pandemic situation, announcement will be released by the CBDT and Ministry of Finance before 3rd week of December 2020
Extension of due dates will help all the citizens, as lockdown restrictions are still in force across the country. FM may kindly look into.
What is the last date of filing of Company Return to R O C
It is obvious in the present scenario of Covid-19 that the due date must be extended
Dear Madam FM
The request for extension of dates is real and genuine we are in deep trouble to come back to normal hence we earnestly request you to extend the dates
Regards
Ramesh
Dear FM,
I shall be happy if you could help the Real Taxpayers by allowing the time extension as appealed by the Association ,due to unusual account of COVID 19 throughout the country.
Regards,
Akparai
There has been a Kissan Aandolan in Indian which has been disrupting commuters from one state to other
There has been a Kissan Aandolan in Indian which has been disrupting commuters from one stat
We fully support for this request to give extention for audit work and income tax return filling.
When we will get the refunds .No information available.
Considering all the factors it is required to extend the due dates as mentioned in the representation. COVID is not yet over and many family of professionals and their staff are also presently facing the COVID issues. There is complete bottleneck situation in the offices of professional to meet various deadlines (GSTs, VSVS, Companies Form Scheme, Tax Audit, IT Returns).
It is requested to extend time limit for individuals also till 31st March 2021 specially senior citizens who are not in a position to go out of their home due to covid19.
Me too feel that the deadline date to be extended not only for Maharashtra but to the whole country as well. These are unprecedented times. Swift actions are required from Honorable Finance Minister
We fully support for the request. To give good quality to audit we need sufficient time and staff. In the interest of all, they must extent the due date…
FM should understand the sutuation of tax practicners facing to collect required data for completing Books of Account Due to Offices, Banks and other Finanacial Institution not full working for Containment Zone and Staff are also not coming reqularly.
Places like Maharashtra is still facing transportation issues apart from surge in covid cases . Life line of Mumbai ( trains) are still not operational and hence it’s difficult to start offices fully and get account and audit done as per current deadlines .
Yes date should be extended.
Thanks for recommandation due date of extended audit report & non audit return for a.y.20200-21
Many senior citizens are stranded with their kids and are not permitted to leave for their normal residence . Not having required documents for filing ITR returns . To help them extension of submission of returns is unavoidable . Hope gov will extend the due dates .
Yes, there is need for extension. Outstation staff have not joined offices till date. Many CA’s have become positive & have lost many mandates.
It is praiseworthy attempt in the interest of all taxpayers and professionals.
We request to extend the filings period to March 2021
Though not related to the demands expressed in this article, this has relevance to the fact that Covid has led to hardships due loss of jobs, incomes, savings etc. All this came about rather suddenly leaving much of the poor and lower middle class in a pitiable state. The mid middle class has done better but many in that category also faced income reductions. The request I have for the respected Finance Minister is to allow people in the mid income bracket below a certain income cutoff, to write off their LTCG taxes especially if they have sold property in 2019. This will help to improve cash reserves that is badly needed to ride out the pandemic when other income sources have dried out. Mounting bills for food, utilities, children’s education, health care have to be paid off. Please think about this. Thank you.
Plz extend ITR to 31st March 2021.
I fully agree with the facts stated above. Govt should realise our problem. Some of our clients have recently faced corona virus and our staff still feel hesitation to visit there offices and our ca colleagues are facing same problem.
Sir you all are trying hard to save the traders,but govt is not taking it seriously ,please try to persuade them to extend gst amnesty and income tax
We senior citizens will also be grateful for extension.as we are strictly staying at home and most of them.are not digital friendly.
Sir,
i also agree with your view. Due to covid-19 pandamic and second wave circumstances, staff are not attending duties. it is always better to extend all returns, reports including gst due dates will be extended till 31.03.2021.
all of our office staff not attending duties due to covid-19 fear
some clients and accounts are suffering from covid-19 and they are unable to attend and books of accounts for audit.
frequent changing in all reports
mostly network problems in remote areas.
my self also is fearing to come my office.
even seasonal cough, professionals are fearing.
F.M. & CBDT should extend due date for tax audit upto 28th February,2021 and return up to 31st March,2021 due to messed up situation for covid 19 pandemic. Till now many bank branch could not up date bank statement etc. due to disturbance of computer etc.
Lets not fight for tax audit extension. I think clients can fight for this. Unnecessarily we CA’s fight for it & but govt department thinks that we are in mistake by doing. They don’t realise thier own mistake. I feel let assessee fight for this thats better.
always dead line is not menodotory heavy fine also purse
One would wish that they would request simplification of tax laws , rules and terminology and forms . That would make people able to do their own work and load these people with clerical work !
Due to various factors which are beyond the controlof the assessees and representatives the audit of accounts and filing of ROI are getting delayed. Hence the Govt. has to extend the dates of filing ROI as sought by the Association, which will be of great help to the tax paying public, who have suffered heavily due to the COVID – 19 pandamic.
Yes above statement is correct. I agree with facts as mention above.
It should be extended till March 2021. They do not understand problems facing by CA’s and Tax Practitioners.
Lack of Staff in our office as well as in client office,
Fear of Corona,
Passbook Printing Machines are not working in many banks,
New ITR Versions are not opening without Office13,
Details they want in Returns are much more than Last Year,
3CB, 3CD are Complicated than Last Year,
Routine GST Returns are changing,
Notices from GST Department.
Lack of facility of Transportation
Absolute minimum will be june, 2021. Totally messed up situation in business and CA communities.
Thanks for representing with detailed explanation to Hon’ble FM of India and hope good result will come soon