CA Rekha Dhamankar
1. DUE DATES OF FILING OF ITR AND TAX AUDIT REPORTS We all know that the due date of filing of the returns and audit reports are as follows-
31st July – filing of return of income for the people other than whom tax audit under income tax act applies and companies
30th September – filing of tax audit report, Income tax return of the person to whom tax audit under income tax is applicable and companies registered in India.
2. DELAY IN NOTIFYING THE FORMS
The date of filing of ITR, which are due for filing on or before 31st July 2015, was extended by CBDT to 31st August by the Notification dated 10 June 2015. There may be some presumptions made about the notification of the forms required to file ITR at the time of notifying the extension of date. However we want to bring your attention on the point that the forms in fact got notified on 22nd June 2015 and 29th July 2015. The CBDT should have reconsidered the declared extension on the basis of date of notification of the forms. However, no such reconsideration has been made by the CBDT.
We strongly feel that the CBDT should not drag and compel the professionals and professional bodies to make representations before it by such delays in notifying the forms, without which the returns cannot be filed. Ideally the forms should have been notified in the month of April or May to give sufficient time to the people to file their ITRs. In the present scenario the time given to complete all the ITRs is only a month, which is not sufficient. Delay in notification of the Forms, which does not have much changes as compared to last year is not a welcome stage on the background of our growing reputation as the leading “Information Technology Nation” in the world. It is hard to imagine for everyone that it takes so many days to notify the forms. This is clear indication of the “bottlenecks” in the development of the system, which has to be removed with strong supported system and planning.
3. SECOND EXTENSION
Further the date was extended to 7th September vide notification dated 2nd September 2015. This also does not have proper justification that why the date of 31st August was extended on 2nd September when people have taken lot of efforts and wasted their time sitting on the computer system idle since the website of the income tax department was not working on 31st August 2015
4. NOT SUFFICIENT TIME TO CONDUCT THE TAX AUDITS
Due to the late notification of the forms of ITR and extension of the date of 31st July 2015 to 31st August 2015, the time to conduct the tax audits, getting information for the same from the clients on the basis of changes in the forms of tax audit last year and uploading of the same will not get enough time. Its always argued by the people that the tax audit should have been completed before July and we should not wait till last month. However we all know and agree the other pressures, deadlines and compliances in the profession that ideally and practically it’s not possible. Also it’s very difficult to get the required information from the client in the month of May and June.
We would like to bring to your notice that the audit work has never been and cannot be considered as a “Mechanical work” and it requires expert knowledge, study and proper guidance from the ICAI (the apex body of auditors in India).
On the background of the introduction of new formats for tax audit report introduced last yar, the tax audit report require the auditor to collect hell lot of information and required detailed scrutiny of transactions. It is practically difficult for the auditors to compile the information, since the time is very short. It may affect the quality of the audits. The CBDT is well aware about the fact that the tax audit forms introduced last year are very complicated. Further, the tax audit reports are to be filed and uploaded online which in itself is a massive task.
Ideally the ITRs due on 31st July should get enough time of 2 months after receipt of Forms 16 and 1 6A and tax audit and company audit should get 3 complete months after finishing the work of filing of returns, if we don’t want to compromise the quality of the audit and show true and correct picture in the audit reports.
5. VIEWS OF ICAI NOT TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION
The Institute of chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), established by an Act in Parliament, is the regulatory body for matters concerning the Audits in our Country. The views of such an esteemed organization always should have been asked for and considered before introducing and implementing such major changes into the system. It is apparent from the facts available that neither the views of ICAI were called for nor the representation moved by ICAI are considered.
6. REPRESENTATION OF THE CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS AT LARGE ARE NOT CONSIDERED
Lot of chartered accountants from Pune, kolhapur, aurangabad, Nagpur, nashik, sangli, miraj, mumbai has filed representations to CBDT, finance minister to extend the date since the forms are notified on 29th July. The group United cas also filed representations. Also direct taxes committee of institute of chartered accountants, Delhi has tried hard and filed the same. But it hasn’t been taken convenience of by the CBDT.
If we accept and have respect for the Chartered Accountancy profession, and we agree they really contribute a lot in the financial reporting of the assessees and who indirectly helps the country in do its financial planning, they should not be taken for granted and kept on the whims and fancies of the Government.
7. APPLICABILITY OF NEW COMPANIES ACT, 2013
The new companies Act was made applicable from 1st April 2014, which is applicable for the audit of FY 2014-15. The professionals and CBDT can very well understand the complexities involved in it and the time it is going to take. It will take lot of time to conduct the audit of the companies since the new Companies Act demands huge information and keeps lot of expectations from CAs to comply with the requirements mentioned therein.
8. REQUIREMENT OF STRONG AND WELL BUILT SCHEMEA
The schema for the revised formats should be prepared with proper and due care. It has been witnessed in the past that every time when such changes are introduced that the auditors and assesses had to face new changes in the schema even on weekly basis. Everyone would agree that such type of changes are not welcome and is enough to damage the image of the prestigious institution like CBDT.
9. LOT OF FESTIVALS
Last but not the least, there are lot of festivals coming in in Maharashtra like Ganesh Festival from 17th to 27th September lot of other festivals in other parts of Countries in August and September 2015. Early communication of the extension may save them from the stress of time management.
WE STRONGLY PROTEST THE NON-EXTENSION OF THE DATES AND HAVE FOLLOWING SUGGESTIONS –
1. ICAI’S AND OTHER CA’S REPRESENTATION SHOULD BE CONSIDERED AND GIVEN WEIGHTAGE
The Institute of chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) , which is established by an Act in Parliament , is the regulatory body for matters concerning the Audits in our Country and it appears from the representation moved by The Direct Taxes Committee of ICAI to the Hon. CBDT should be taken into consideration. Since the matter is connected with Audits hence the views of the ICAI should be given proper attention and respected. Further the representations of the members of the ICAI who actually does the work and expected to comply the legal requirements should be given weightage The representation given by the ICAI should be accepted and the dates for filing of return should be extended as represented by ICAI and its members at large.
2. EXTEND THE DATE BY TWO MONTHS IN CASE OF TAX AUDIT AND AUDITS OF COMPANIES
We demand that the date of preparation of Tax audit Report, filing of return of the companies and assesses, which are due on or before 30th September 2015 should be extended to 30th November 2015.
you would appreciate that the law itself provides a gap of 2 months between the two due dates of 31st July and 30th September meaning that the lawmakers of this country are aware of the needs of the tax payers, tax auditors and the tax advisors. Accordingly CBDT should respect the intent of the law and provide a period of 2 months for the filing of tax audit and corporate tax returns after 31st August. Further if we consider the complexities involved in New companies Act, one more month should be granted.
If we consider the number of audit each Chartered Accountant can do (which is 60 per CA), it would be non-humanitarian to expect from them to complete all the audits before 30th September 2014 after wasting 2 months of the auditors in notifying the forms for which the due date is 31st July 2015.
3. IMMEDIATE COMMUNICATION OF THE EXTENSION
The decision of the extension of the dates with all clarifications must be issued and communicated / published at the earliest. If this suggestion is accepted, we expect that immediate communication in this regard is issued without waiting for the due date to come closure so that sufficient time is available for the auditors and efforts can be suitably channelized to complete the work in the given time frame. This may lead to proper time planning and reduction of undue stress of completion of the work.
We strongly protest the press release and communication coming from Finance Ministry for non- extension of the date. We protest the reasons given for non extension of time that the audit should be completed before 30th September 2015 since there are no major changes in the form when the CBDT took nearly 4 months time just to notify the forms when there are no major changes in the same.
Nationwide all the professionals must unite now and protest in a concerted manner by staging a dharna outside north block, observe fiscal disobedience, ICAI and other bar Associations office bearers should sit on hunger strike, stop payment of advance tax untill and unless CBDT listens us because government is hungry for money . There should be a long march to Arun Jaitely’s house and submission of protest and memorandum. Is it not violation of fundamental rights by depriving the legitimate assessees to file tax return in April, may June and July, Why they are not able to release the form on 1st April itself with schema. The delay in release of form should be coupled with extension of days for equal days.
CBDT and Tax officials are often complaining about the shortcomings in the Tax audit reports attested by CA in several seminars and Other open discussions. CBDT should realise the fact that CAs should require reasonable time to complete the tax audits and to attest tax audit reports so that CAs can properly discharge their duties in the Tax audit front. CBDT has given abundant time to individuals and non-corporate assessees and taking an adamant stand in the case of auditable assessees which is not justifiable. Supporting the extension of due date for tax audit
This situation is created by CAs them self. When books of accounts was written , very small and big have very good accountants and they were at least writing the Day book daily . Now with IT in place and most of the accounting works are done by Have baked Tally accountants . If there is regular accounting then you can have the financials in the first week of April itself. Here CAs should show the guts to tell their clients to engage Good accountants. Now in the month of September they present some thing called accounts and the CA office staffs are put under enormous pressure for meeting the dead line. Why we CAs get this much involved in the case of Advance Tax , Loss return etc etc. Now the impression given is that all these are the CAs DUTY. Similarly CAs should also learn to discard clients who are not proper with their accounts.
Dear Friends, Prima Facie it seems CBDT is behind tax collection. They will declare extention once their target is achieved. Its their regular policy to give extention at very last moment and till that declaration almost 95% work is done with sleep less nights and lots of stress. Further the efforts all CA puts in by scanning the financial documents and uploading are of no use for professionals as when the assessment takes place the first thing they ask is to submit hard copy of all the documents. ICAI should have serious discussion about this and make life simpler for CA.
we the professionals not only helping the govt in the form of tax collection as an advisers to large public and also preparing reports as true and correct. why there so much difficulty to the CBDT to extend time limit given for filing TAR when there is a apparent mistake on their part in notifying the online return forms on time.
insted of asking for extention , and commenting on the issuue …go plz go boys on work ,,,come on you can do it 😉
Very good analytical drafting by professional, to highlight almost all key points. Hats of to you skills in drafting.
BUSINESSBY OWN HARD WORK HELP NATION FOR BUILD UP GROWTH AND PROFESSION CA OR ADV ETC PLY ROLE OF MEDIATOR BUT GOVT LIKE PEOPLE COME FOR EMPLOYMENT WITH US AT FREE
Neither Mr. FM, nor CBDT personnel are not conversant the impact of Tax laws , Companies Act 2013 ,
We the professional are working hard for the Nation but why the FM, CBDT are not appetite and admit of their fault in publicizing the Tax audit forms with the stipulated period . Still in the Income tax web-site changes in jurisdictions were not correct.
Due date of filing ITax Returns for all category of Tax payers should be extended till 31/10/2015 and 30/11/2015
This type of adamant attitude is not accepted from the FM, CBDT, Considering the facts and circumstances are carrying since the moth of July/ 2015
VERY GOOD SUGGESTION IN MY OPINION
Indian Bureacracy is “our curse to our nation and it is responsible for India’s slow growth and bottle neck , our politicians are fully depend on our worn out useless Bureacracy . These politicians and government can not pass a GST bill in time bound manner is expecting the common public who pay their tax and to file their return in shortest possible Time ? What a cruel joke ? Why we need a minister for any department , Let all administration and governance be managed by the Bureacracy ! NDA is not different from UPA and it is even much worse than the previous government !!!
We Chartered Accountants should go on strike for next 3 days. All over the india all CA firms should be closed for 3 days. No tax return , No audit report filling and No tax payment.
my request to the CBDT and FINANCE MINISTER is to complete the procedures, changes, other modifications inreturns and forms well in advance say for the asst year 2016-17 by / before march 2016. So that the assesses can file the return from 12.01am onwards from 1-4-2016. If they do this we the tax professionals never ask for postponement. The GOVTseems to be all friendly in words . Why not in this. It is from their side the delay is there. I did not understand the rationale behind the govt thinking by giving 37 days time extension for simple and unaudited returns and stating that the same cannot be done for audited cases. As done in last year the govt can postpone the date and pass notification to pay interest for taxes paid on or after 1-10-2015.
CA institute should learn from the BAR council how to protest.
Assessment year means the year in which the income will be assessed. So in my view total year should be allowed to file the returns & any other information including tax audit without any penalty. The due date is a nonsense methodology adopted by some nonsense law makers to collect some revenue through fine. In one hand they are allowing to file the return within 2 years from the end of the year in other hand they are forcing due dates. You take the interest no matter.
In my view the due date if any should have been 31st March of next year. Otherwise it is a suggestion to those law makers to abolish the word”Assessment Year” & use “Assessment Quarter”, “Assessment half year” etc.
Further regarding the today’s topic I have following judgements.
1. Our CBDT/FM/Other IT authorities involved in planning are so inefficient that they take 4 months just to change some simple things. Rather they take 8 months (30th november 2014 to 7th Aug 2015.
2. They have every right to sleep
3. They are the kings not the lawmakers as required by our holy Constitution.
4. After all Mr FM is a cricket administrator & he believes in 20-20 match (now popular than one day matches or Test matches)
5. Friends we are test/oneday players but we can play 20-20 also. But who only believes in 20-20 they can’t stand for five days. He stood for 1.5 days till date only. Lets pray for his presence for all 5 days of this current test match of the govt. Other good players are there like Mr. Prabhu & Mr. Goel.
Under the Income tax Act 180 days time is given from the end of financial yeat for realisation of export proceeds to claim appropriate reliefs and therefore one has to wait until 30th September for exports effected on 31st March and also under VAT laws 6 months are given for return of goods.These positi
EXTENDING INCOME TAX RETURNS