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ICAI has further requested CBDT to extend time for submission of Tax Audit Reports and related returns from 30th September, 2018 to 31st October, 2018 as CBDT has not followed Norms of Earlier Years of discussing Important Changes in Tax Audit Report with ICAI, there was Constant changes in Utilities relating to Tax Audit Forms,  Delay in release of utilities and there were Issue in utility of ITR Form No. 5.

ICAI has made a Similar Representation earlier on 31.08.2018 which can be accessed at the following link- Extend Tax Audit Due Date to 31st October, 2018: ICAI

ICAI has made its thirs representation on 17.09.2018, which can be accessed at the following link – Extend due date to submit Tax Audit Reports & ITR: ICAI

THE INSTITUTE OF CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA

(Set up by an Act of Parliament)

ICAI/DTC/2018-19/Rep – 34

10th September, 2018

Shri Sushil Chandra Ji,
Chairman,
Central Board of Direct Taxes,
Ministry of Finance,
Government of India,
North Block,
New Delhi-110 001.

Respected Sir,

Further submissions: Reg. our representation dated 31st August, 2018 for extension of time for submission of Tax Audit Reports and related returns from 30th September, 2018 to 31st October, 2018.

This has a reference to the representation no. ICAI/DTC/2018-19/Rep — 27 dated 31st August,2018 submitted to your good office with a request for extension of time for submission of Tax Audit Reports and related returns from 30th September, 2018 to 31st October, 2018.

As you are kindly aware that ‘ICAI, being a partner in nation building, has always tried to strengthen the relationship between the taxpayers and the Department by placing before your good office, the difficulties being faced by assessees in respect of matters relating to direct taxes for appropriate solution. In view of the same, members have raised their concerns which were enumerated in the aforementioned representation.

In addition, to our above submissions, please kindly consider further submissions as follows:

1. Norm followed in earlier years:

It is pertinent to mention that in the year 2006-07 when the tax audit report was revised through Notification No. 208/2006 dated 10,8.2006, the same was made effective prospectively for AY 2007-08 and not retrospectively. Intact, in the AY 2006-07, despite of applicability of new forms prospectively, the due date of filing tax audit reports and their corresponding ITR were extended to 30th November, 2006. Similar approach should have been adopted this time also.

2. Constant changes in Utilities relating to Tax Audit Forms:

Continuous and regular updations are being made to the utility of Form No. 3CA/3CD and 3CB/3CD. Recently, the department has released/amended the utility of Form No. 3CB on 7th September 2018. Due to the frequent changes in the utilities, tax payers are facing difficulties in filing their tax audit reports efficiently as they need time to digest the changes. Such changes are causing further time consumption on the part of members.

Further, the changes made in the utility on 1st September, 2018 in Clause No. 9(a) of Form No. 3CB, there is a requirement of mentioning the details of the partners of the firm, which is a mandatory field. The present utility does not allow the assessee to enter any data in this field and the field is locked, inspite of the status of the assessee selected as partnership firm. Kindly refer to the representation no. ICAI/DTC/2018- 19/Rep – 32 dated 07th September,2018 highlighting the same. There has been no further update in this matter and the partnership firm’s auditors are not able to complete their audits due to this error.

The relevant screenshot of the error is as below:

screenshot of the error

3. Delay in release of utilities:

Due to the delay in e-enabling of return forms, the effective time available for filing of return of income became very less, causing genuine hardship to the assessees and members of the profession. The table below shows the effective time available for filing return of income/tax audit report(TAR) of A.Y.2018-19 whose last date for filing return of income/TAR falls due on 30th September, 2018:

S. No.
ITR Forms/ TAR
Time
available
for filing
return of
income/ TAR (from
the end of the
relevant
financial year)
Date of Notification
Date of enabling          E-Filing
Delay in release       of
enabling     e-filing utility
Effective time available for filing of return of income/ TAR (from the date of
enabling)
Numb er      of
times utility modified after release       in
Java version
Last modified date
1 ITR 3
days 03.04.2018 18.05.20 18 48
days
135 days 5 07.09.2 018
2 ITR 5 & 7 183 days 03.04.2018 21.05.20 18 51
days
132 days 5 01.09.2 018
3 ITR 6 183 days 03.04.2018 26.05.20 18 56
days
127 days 4 14.08.1 8
4 Form 3CA,3CB, 3CD 183 days 20.07.2018 20.08.20 18 143 days 40 days 5 07.09.2 018

The relevant screenshots of ITR Forms & Form 3CD utilities updation are as under:

Income Tax Return Preparation Utilities

Form 3CD Schema Changes

The main cause of concern for our members is that they need sufficient time to discharge all their professional obligations in an effective manner. It is also to be noted that whenever there is a schema change and the release of new utility by the CBDT, it requires time to understand the changes made in comparison to the earlier version. It is also seen that whenever the new utility is released, there are issues specially relating to the blocking of the mandatory fields for reporting, resulting in delay for completion of audit (Refer Point-2 for blocking of Clause 9(a) field).

Many assessees and auditors are using the softwares which are prepared by the software providers, based on the schema released by the CBDT. The software vendors take almost around a week’s time to update the software after the schema is released, due to which the working days get reduced.

More particularly, it is also our concern that the quality of audit conducted by them should not be compromised in any manner due to lack of sufficient time.

4. Issue in utility of ITR Form No. 5:

At present, the utility of ITR Form No. 5 is computing the late fee under Section 234F of the Income-tax Act, 1961 which is actually not leviable/applicable, since the return is filed within the time specified under the provisions of Section 139(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961. Kindly refer to the representation no. ICAI/DTC/2018-19/Rep – 31 dated 07th September,2018 highlighting the same issue.

The relevant screenshot of the error is as below:

Issue in utility of ITR Form No. 5

Reiteration of Suggestion:

In view of the above reasons and the reasons stated in our earlier representation, we suggest and request that the due date of filing returns of income under section 139(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 for assessees mentioned under clause (a) of Explanation 2 to section 139(1) and also the ‘specified date’ for filing tax audit reports be extended from 30th September, 2018 to 31st October, 2018 for AY 2018-19 as also the due date for filing tax audit reports.

We reiterate our request to grant an appointment to the undersigned as per your convenience to enable us elaborate our viewpoints.

We hope that our concerns would be favourably considered.

Yours faithfully,
-Sd‑

Chairman, Direct Taxes Committee

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

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267 Comments

  1. ajay says:

    Sir, Please extend due date for minimum 1 month immediately. Last movement notification of extension has no meaning. If it is not extended on today many tax practitioners and accountants will be hospitalized due to abnormal load of work. Now they are working till 12-16 hours a day

  2. kolluri veerraju says:

    Dealers and Tax consultants i.e. Auditors are greatly thankful to the I.T. Department as it is be required that extention of due date to file I.T.Returns, it is justifiable , after taking many factiors into consideration ,we requesting you to extend the last date from 30th September to 31st october 2018 , before two or three days of september 30th is not beneficial

  3. Mohammed Gous Pasha says:

    Sir..

    Please extend the due date of Tax audit AY 2018-19
    If possible please announce today….Becoz we are really uncontrollable with audit & GST filling work so please extent the due date up to 31-10-2018…..Thanking you.

  4. KIRPAL SINGH says:

    It is humble request to extend the due date of tax audit from 30 Sep 2018 to 31 Oct 2018. Because I am also an accountant and very stressed due to due date of tax audit of 30 Sep. I want to share one more thing that to match GSTR2A with purchases as per books is also very tedious job. Because 2017-18 was the first GST year and there were number of confusions and complications to manage all the data in accuracy. So its a request from me and all the accountants.

    Awaiting the due date extension notification asap…

    Thanks

  5. HONEY JAIN says:

    WHY CBDT WONT MAKE ANY REPLY TO ICAI.
    I THINK ITS LIMIT ICAI IS A BRIGDE BETWEEN TAXPAYERS,TAX PRACTIONERS AND GOVERNMENT. CBDT INSULTS THE APPLICATIONS OF ICAI. VERY BAD. ALL PROFESSIONALS ARE HUMANS NOT MACHINES

  6. Gunjan says:

    Sir, Please extend due date for minimum 1 month immediately. Last movement notification of extension has no meaning. If it is not extended on today many tax practitioners and accountants will be hospitalized due to abnormal load of work. Now they are working till 12-16 hours a day.

  7. Shahul says:

    Sir still we are working rain started clients are sleeping with joyfully. Internet got slow. Interbusiness with kerela so many accounts copies are pending. Please extend the date, see how many good wishes to you are your family will come from our colleques who is commenting for extend.

  8. Sandeep says:

    Sir extension of due date is justifiable as the schema has been changed continuously up to 7 September and we have not been given sufficient time to finalise the audit report.

  9. SANJAY KUSHWAHA says:

    PLEASE ANNOUNCE EXTENSION OF TAX AUDIT DUE DATE FOR MENTAL PEACE OF ALL TAX PROFESSIONAL . THERE IS HEAVY LOAD ON ALL TAX PROFESSION BECAUSUE THIS IS FIRST TAX AUDIT AFTER GST

  10. vijay garg says:

    Sir please please extend the date from 30 Sep to 31 Oct because it very difficult to finalize books due to gst please annonced extended date just now

  11. MADHU KUMAR TRIPATHI says:

    SIR JI HAM TO KIS PRAKAR PARIWAR KI JIVIKA CHALA RAHE HAI SAYAD AAP LOGO KO PATA NAHI MERA TO PURA PARIWAR BIKHAR JAYEGA FATHER CANSER KA MARIJ HAI HAM KHUD ROGO SE GRASIT HAI BACHCHE BHIKHAR JAYEGE LEKIN GOVT. KO KYA HAI MODI SIR KE SATH HAI DEKHATE HAI ES BAR GARIBO KE SATH KYA ENSAF KARTE HAI

  12. Ruchika Somani says:

    I disagree with this extension due to following reasons :
    1. The error currently faced in form 3cb3cd for partnership firms can be resolved in a way that first save form in draft mode and thereafter in the very end reopen form and change the question of change in partnership to Yes o No and add name of partners and ratios and save in xml mode. This way forms can be uploaded.
    2. More the extension will increase more the clients will become lazy to provide data to CA for audit.
    3. Extension in Audit will result to delay in GST audits whose current due date is 31.12.2018. And probably this delay may lead to delay in GST audits too.
    4. Once the financial year is over then why to extend compliances of pertaining PY in CY to such a long time. Clients tend to forget many things and there current working also gets disturbed.
    5. Changes in utility of income tax returns are nominal and manageable. Being professional its our duty to guide clients regarding changes in utility or study the utility and upload return by self. (obviously charging for the same)
    In a nutshell : The era of extension needs to be stopped or else every year people will have a sure short confidence of extension which will make them delay there work and lazy. Rules are made bearing things in mind and not bearing extension in mind.
    Come on people lets follow Punctuality. The greatest gift of Shri. Late Mahatma Gandhi for Indians.
    And we, CA’s being finance partner of Government let make clients aware of there responsibilities.
    – Ruchika K Somani.

    You can reach me at ruchasom@gmail.com
    (reviews are highly appreciated)

  13. Nandakumar says:

    Sir , Please extend the date from 30 Sep to 31 Oct 2018 because it very difficult to complete the GST reconciliation and other complaine to finalize the books.

  14. Mitthoo says:

    Due date for for filing the return should be extended from 30th September to 31st October to ease the tension of everybody responsible for filing the Audit Report & Income Tax return

  15. S S Raju says:

    It is surprising that always a request for extension of due date comes from ICAI or other professional bodies and not from trade associations.Hence the government feels that ICAI is playing a spoil spot only to help it’s members. Nobody is realising that the ultimate loser is the assessed. We the professionals are being squeezed by both the government in case of omissions as commissions in TAR and the assessed if the same are not fixed within the due date even if they come on 29th or 30th September. We are the sufferers having both ways.

  16. S. Kamdar says:

    It is surprising that none of the trade bodies are requesting for extension of deadline – it is only the ICAI which is concerned about effective completion of the audit work. In fact, the trade bodies and organisations should be initiating the request for extension of time. The impression created is that ICAI members are unable to cope with the work. Henceforth, ICAI must push trade bodies and organisations to initiate the request for extension and ICAI should support the same.

  17. PRAVIN BHANDARI says:

    Eventhough co 44 of tar.postponed still rico of 3b and 2A is evident. So also lot of difficulties and delay in downloadind 2A considerable time is required to finalise regular accounts. Extention up to 31 dec is must

  18. RAVI VARSHNEY says:

    Sir please please extend the date from 30 Sep to 31 Oct because it very difficult to finalize books due to gst please annonced extended date today

  19. Azhar says:

    This is very bad after so many request still they not extended that too Icaa twice. I request all state c a associations come forward with their strong representation to get our right of extension. How many they changes forms they know that still kerela state what is the situation.

  20. MoHD AsLAM SITAPUR UP says:

    In this month Important Festival Ganesh & Moharrem If Date Not Extend Many Worker not Celebrate Festival in Long Time Work With Gst We Want Relief Some Day So Please Date Extend till November 2018

  21. Surya Prakash Soni says:

    I am myself being professional worker, filling ITRs since 1995. I have not seen as bad time and bad manner of IT department in the past as now. Modiji wants to make India progressive, but this department or we can say finance ministers try to put public in hardship and complicated matters day by day. Public should be giving facility to easily file their ITRs correct, freely and without any problem. But this depatment daily changing ITRS , till now 6 times ITRs have been changed in this year. In the past forms were changed after 3 or 4 years and sufficient time was given to understand the changes made. there were no late fees to file returns after due date within the assessment year, only interest on tax was charged, which was reasonable. Law is changed by the department, due to carelessness of the department, public is punished. Persons like limited companies and firms come under audit have sufficient facilities and staff to file their ITRs in time. But ordinary persons remain busy in their peak season of business from February to June and July. How to file ITRs leaving their business ? If any person earns some money, he becomes happy to pay tax and file ITRs. They should be given at least 3 to 4 months time after business season i, e, after July to file ITRs and after that only interest on tax should be charges, but not penalty within the assessment year. I think strongly that the officials of the finance department and ministers themselves wants to harass the public by presenting absurd rules so that Modiji Govt. can go out of power easily. All they do not like Modiji rules in India. Sorry for strong correct and real facts. Thanks to all. May God save us from these type of persons in power.

  22. Golak Behari Rout says:

    Sir,
    It should be change due to the 30th Sept. to 31st December becuase, If it has any mistakes in Annual GST return filing, then it will make correction in Income Tax Audit. Accordingly it will change and fix the audit date.

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