PRACTICAL DIFFICULTIES IN CASE OF ASSESSEES LIABLE TO PAY SELF ASSESSMENT TAX OF Rs. 1 LAKH OR MORE FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31.03.2020.
As per he CBDT’s Press Release dated 24.06.2020 if the Self Assessment Tax payable is more than Rs. 1 Lakh the whole of the tax is to be paid by the specified dates i.e. in the case of non-audit cases on or before 31st July and in the case of audit cases on or before 30th September and if paid beyond the said dates they have to bear interest under section 234A @ 1% per month or part thereof. This is against the relief given earlier by way of ‘Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of Certain Provisions) Ordinance 2020, wherein the due dates were extended to November for all assessees according to which they are not liable to pay interest under section 234A for the period from July/September up to 30th November.
Already business community is suffering due to ‘Coronovirus Pandemic Lock Down’ and it is unfair to withdraw the relief announced earlier. Those who have not paid the required Advance Tax, are those, who were already cash strapped. They have not paid because they were not having enough cash flow during that period thinking that they would be able to pay with interest under section 234 B & C for shortfall in Advance Tax and Instalments at the time of filing the return in the coming financial year before the due dates. They would not have dreamt that they would not be able to run the business during this period up to the regular due dates. Now the due dates were extended to mitigate their suffering to some extent. Of course their liability to pay interest u.s 234 B &C is still there and relief announced earlier is for the extended period only and that too for the interest u.s. 234A relating to the delay in filing the return. Withdrawing the same is like adding injury to wound. Hence it is unfair to make them pay the tax with interest if the same exceeds Rs. 1 Lakh.
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Yes, it is unfair to levy penalty u/s 234A if the pending tax exceeds Rs.1 lakh. I was also victim to this when I filed my returns on Dec 22nd 2020. I was told that I should have paid the pending / self assessment tax before July 31st. People who are dependent on auditors to file returns were avoiding physical visits due to Covid 19 precautions. This led to delay in filing returns. It seems that the due dates extensions have been beneficial to only those whose tax was below Rs. 1 lakh. Even if the tax was just a little over Rs. 1 lakh, a Rs. 1000+ penalty per month is being levied. Very unfair on the part of the IT Dept. At least for FY 2019-20, all such penalties should have been removed for Covid 19 reasons.
As given in the article it will cause a great hardship to those who have to pay more than Rs. 1 Lakh since they have to pay necessarily interest @ 1% per month or part of the month from April till the date of filing the return u.s 234B if the Advance Tax paid is less than 90% of the total tax payable, even though the date of filing the return has been extended in addition to the interest u.s 234C for deferment of Advance Tax (due to shortfall in the instalments). In such cases if the assessee has to pay interest @ 1% u.s 234A also he would end up in paying interest @ 2% p.m. (24% per year).