Extend Due Date of filing Income Tax Return and Audit Report for FY 2020-21: Tax Bar Association

Tax Bar Association (TBA) has requested that Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Hon’ble Revenue Secretary, Chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes, extend the deadlines for filing income tax returns and submitting tax audit reports for FY 2020-21 (AY 2021-22).

It has been submitted that the due date for submission of Tax Audit Report Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss Account under Income Tax Act, 1961 for A.Y. 2021-22 is 15th Jan 2022. The Audit work includes verification of Turnover and ITC on purchases and expenses as well. Due to Practical difficulties faced by taxpayers & tax professionals in filing: [a] Income tax returns, tax audit forms [b] System glitches in new website launch. The request representation has been submitted.

Below is a Copy of the Representation Submitted :

Hon’ble Smt Nirmala Sitharaman Ji
Union Minister of Finance,
Ministry of Finance,
Govt. of India,
North Block. NEW DELHI – 110001
Email fimo(@nic.in

Shri Tarun Bajaj
Hon’ble Revenue Secretary,
Office of the Seeretary (Revenue),
North Block, NEW DELHI – 110 001
Email [email protected]

Shri Jagannath Bidyadhar Mohapatra
Chairman, Central Board of Direct Taxes,
North Block. NEW DELHI – 110 001
Email [email protected]

Respected Madam / Sirs,

Sub: REPRESENTATION IN RESPECT TO INCOME TAX RETURNS AND AUDIT REPORT FOR A.Y. 2021-2022 (FY.2020-2021)

Greetings from the Tax Bar Association-Bhilwara. !

Tax Bar Association (TBA) established in the year 1990 is the first & only Apex Regional Body of Advocates, Chartered Accountants, Company Secretaries, CMA & Tax Practitioners of Bhilwara District Rajasthan. having membership strength of more than professionals.

The prime objective of Association is not only to work for the cause of its professionals but also to educate the public at large and to act as a catalyst between Citizens & Government Authorities. TBA regularly organizes seminars, lectures on tax advocacy and legal awareness across Bhilwara District.

The Income Tax website also known as the Income tax portal is an important link between the Income Tax Department and the taxpayers of the country. It facilitates filing of tax returns, different forms under the Income Tax Act and also, performing other work pertaining to tax assessments such as providing responses to Notices, checking refund status queries, rectification, grievance redressal, filing of appeal before first appellate authority (i.e. CIT Appeal),representation through Video Conferencing, etc. The old income tax website was simple yet efficient in facilitating all the abovementioned tasks.

We take this liberty to representing various burring issues being faced by in respect to new web portal of Income Tax managed by Infosys. The Portal is not allowing any compliance to be done or any past record to be accessed. This is very serious, it is not functioning for the purpose it was designed. Apart from the pandemic, the glitches in the newly launched e-filing site are also giving additional pain to the taxpayers.

The newly launched tax filing portal of the tax department was marred with technical issues from day one of its launch. Many tax fillers were finding it difficult to file their returns using the portal. Various stakeholders complained of issues faced during different stages of the filing process.

The pandemic situation is still prevailing with new version of OMICRON in several parts of the country and many taxpayers are under distress and there are multiple lacunas, issues in the functions of the new portal, there are few issue which are yet to be operational and stakeholders are left with no choice but to wait.

We take this liberty to representing various burning issues being faced by stakeholders for compliance in respect to furnishing Income Tax Return due to following hardships:

(1) The Income Tax Department launched its new e-filing Portal on June 7, 2021 with objectives of ease of tax compliance speedy, easier and more importantly hassles free. However in spite of several representations, meeting with the higher authorities of the web portal developer, it seems to have been no improvement in the e-filing portal So Many Tax payers across the country and tax professionals have facing hardship since the launching of e-filing portal for various compliances.

(2) The utilities for ITR-1, ITR-2 and ITR-4 have been notified but have many problems and frequently changes in the schemas and utilities. Also, utilities ITR-5, ITR-6, and ITR-7 have been notified lately and not properly functional and tax payers’ facing hardship for filing of such return due to new web portal. It is pertinent to note that ITR 5 was updated on 9th December, 2021 and ITR 6 on 3 December, 2021. Even the Income Tax Audit Forms 3CA, 3CB and 3CD latest version was released on 9″ December, 2021. The software companies also take time to update the same and hence the filling gets delayed.

(3) In case ITR-6 for Companies Return, the companies opted for concessional Tax u/s 115BAA or 15BAB last year, The Portal is not allowing the filing of ITR and is asking for filing of Form 10-IC again but not allowing its filing companies are facing problems in filing Form 10-IC if they have chosen to pay concessional tax at the rate of 22 per cent under sectionl 15BAAof the Income Tax Act.

(4) The Portal is not allowing filing Form 10-1E in many cases and showing unknown reasons in case of ITR-3, (for the assesses declaring Income from Salary, Business, Capital gain and Other Sources) if the assesses opled for concessional tax under section 115BAC, the portal is not allowing the filling of ITR and is asking for filling of Form 10-IE again but not permitting to file the same.

(5) Charitable Organization is required to furnish Audit Report in prescribed Form 10B u/s.12A (b) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, the Charitable Organizations and Auditors are facing hardship in respect furnishing Audit Report in Form No. 10B. The web portal is not allowing and not accepting Audit Report in Form No. 10B in many cases which causes much hardship. Accordingly it will be very hardship for filing of Income Tax Return without furnishing Form No.10B and consequently non furnishing of Income Tax Return before due date cause non availability of exemptions u/s 11 to 12 of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Under such circumstance, we propose to extend the time limit for the filing of Form No. 10B at least for 28th February, 2022.

(6) The extended date for filing of returns for individual taxpayers not covered under tax audit is 31 December 2021. Several challenges still remain in the new JSON utility which poses a challenge for individuals to file the tax return within this due date. For instance, there needs to be a quick resolution on errors in the utility related to computation of eligible donation, loss on house property under the simplified tax regime.

(7) There are operational challenges as well, For instances, the e-filing portal is too slow, filing of Form 67 as required for claim of foreign tax credit and resetting the password is still not possible in the absence of an Indian mobile number or net banking. As taxpayers are encouraged to review the information in these forms before filing the returns, an extension of the due date is appreciated on the valid hardships of the Stakeholders.

(8) At present, around 60% people have been able to file their tax returns compared to last year. Hence, more than 3.5 crore tax returns are yet to be filed in the next 7 days, which is a very huge number. Further, the income tax website is also altogether new this year with new things like pre-fill data, Annual Information Statement (AIS), Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS) etc. are introduced for the first time.

(9) Introduction of AIS / TIS : In case of individual & HUF assessee Annual Information Statement (AIS), Tax Information Statement (TIS) have been introduced in Oct /Nov 2021 Coordinating with the data on these statements is almost an impossible task as the statement have been introduced after many assesses have finalised their accounts. These statements are faulty in it, as it contains half the information. In many cases the banks have not supplied the full / part of the information. If there are bulk transactions of shares or other transaction then it does not get downloaded or takes too much time to get downloaded. In case of discrepancies in data available it becomes difficult to how to correlate the data with actual figures. It will lead to issues in scrutiny assessments in future. Therefore, it is urged that the basis of AIS, TIS data be started from next assessment year. Those who have already filed ITR before the introduction of A.I.S. are now advised to file a revised return. If CBDT has introduced A.l.S. late on the portal why assessee should file a revised ITR?

(10) That due date of other statutory compliances under the Direct Taxes and Indirect Taxes clashes on the scheduled due date on 31st December, 2021. Due to that the Tax Professional also facing hardship on ground of conflicting with the due date. Further, Due date for filing revised returns is 31 December for all assessee. However, due to the reasons of new website the due date of filing original returns has been extended. Therefore, the due date for filing revised returns be extended at 3 months from filing the extended due date of filing the original return.

(11) lt has been also observed that certain changes in figure in Section 43B colum1n while uploading Tax Audit Reports and loss has not been considered while uploading Income Tax Return while filing u/s. 44AD.

(12) Due date of Scrutiny Assessment: The due date of scrutiny assessments for A Y 2018-19 & other scrutiny assessments under other sections is 31s December 2021. Tax professionals find it almost impossible whether to file ITR’s. Tax audit reports, GSTR-9, GSTR- 9C audit or to comply with the serutiny assessments in the given time.

(13) New ITD Portal is still not fully functional at its 100% level as it is not a glitch free portal where still many issues are encountered by many people filing multiple ITRs /s 139(1) for the same PAN, Incorrect upload of JSON files of one PAN in some other PANs, unable to download Income Tax acknowledgements and/or ITR forms after filing, validations of ITR Forms, Frequent changes in ITD utilities, Login Issues, time consumed in processing and generating, even after processing of ITR on real time basis, Income Tax Refund payable is shown as awaited, Mismatch in PAN Data when there is no mismatch, PAN Account locking even when PAN Number is active, Filing of Refund Reissue Requests, DSC validation issues, Bank account validation issues, New PAN registrations issues, New Registration of trust and societies, Data saving issues on ITD Portal etc.

(14) Some issues still persist from the day one like smooth functioning of Rectification applications, filing of ITR perusal to Notice u/s 139(9), incorrect processing of intimations u/s 143(1), updating of UDIN to map with documents filed on ITD website and so on;

(15) Issues in Appointment of auditors, Rejection of incorrect audit reports uploaded, reappointment of auditors for filing of original audit reports or revised audit reports and so on;

(16) Issues in filing of ITR Returns as Representative Assesses as Legal Heirs, mentally incapacitated person or person of unsound mind and Ofticial Liquidators, etc.

These hindrances are making it very difficult for the Assesses, the Chartered Accountants and the Tax Practitioners to comply with even the extended due dates. It is therefore urged that extension for filing of various returns & compliances for AY 2021-22 be granted as follows:

We assure you our best possible co-operation in re-building our most beloved motherland.

For Official Copy of Representation Download PDF Given Below :