Extend ITR & GST Audit filing dates: Six Leading Associations of CA Covid-19 has shaken the world and uprooted normalcy everywhere. Till now, the Government has been extremely proactive in taking various measures to help the economy deal with this situation. Now, Representation has been made by Six Leading Associations of Chartered Accountants to Finmin to extend ITR & GST Audit filing dates. The same is given below for reference:

PRESS RELEASE

Issued in the interest of lakhs of taxpayers and tax professionals of the country

Covid-19 has shaken the world and uprooted normalcy everywhere. Till now, the Government has been extremely proactive in taking various measures to help the economy deal with this situation. We sincerely appreciate the efforts by the Government in this regard. However, we wish to highlight undue and unintended hardships that are currently faced by tax payers. Timelines for filing of returns and tax audit forms Current position: the deadline for filing the return of income for FY 2019-20 (AY 2020-21) was extended in June 2020 from its original deadlines. Subsequent to such extension, the dues dates stand as under:

Particulars	Due date
Income tax returns for all tax payers (including where audit under the Income-tax Act or any other Act is applicable)	30th November, 2020
Tax audit report and transfer pricing report submission 31st October, 2020	31st October, 2020
GST Annual Return (GSTR-9) and GST Audit (GSTR-9C) submission FY 2018-19	31st October, 2020
GST Annual Return (GSTR-9) and GST Audit (GSTR-9C) submission FY 2019-20	31st December, 2020

There are still many States in the country where lockdown has not been lifted. The number of containment zones are rapidly changing. Furthermore, there are restrictions on the number of staff members that can come to work. In many cities across India, the life line in terms of local trains is still not available. This has resulted into very low number of people working (out of) in offices in many organisations especially MSMEs and small corporates. Majority of the CA firms who carry out audits are small and medium sized firms having limited resources to work remotely and work from home. Further, audit is an activity that more often than not happens on the ground and in the premise of the audit clients. Lockdown and continuing fear of spread of virus has resulted in the audit process getting impacted considerably. People are more worried right now about survival than about tax compliances. In any case, the ITR 6 form relevant for AY 2020-21 was amended very recently. Similarly, the tax audit form – Form 3CD has also been amended very recently. For both these important forms, the utilities which allow taxpayers to file the ITR / Form 3CD have not yet been made available by the CBDT. In case of GSTR-9 (Annual Return) and GSTR-9C (Audit Report) for FY 2018-19, date was extended by a month very recently. However, the time provided is very short considering parallel deadlines under Income Tax Act and Companies Act. Besides, the routine deadline for above GST filings for FY 2019-20 is 31st December 2020 by default, but within such short time, filings could not be made without substantial compromise to quality. On the other hand GSTN website has been out of order for most of the time during the current month. For corporate tax payers, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs have extended the due date for holding the AGMs from 30th September to 31st December 2020. With this extension, it would be almost impossible to adhere to the tax audit filing due date of 31st October, 2020 and ITR filing due date of 30th November, 2020 in case of companies. Work on uniform and consistent basis could not be done, due to overlapped deadlines, which under COVID prone environment should have been understandably be extended, suo motu by the Government.

Our prayer to the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi: Considering all the above difficulties, we earnestly request you to kindly prevail upon the Hon’ble Finance Minister Smt Nirmala Sitharaman to extend the due date for : (1) filing of returns for all the taxpayers for A.Y. 2020-21 to 31st March, 2021; (2) filing the tax audit report and transfer pricing report to 28th February, 2021; (3) filing the GST Annual Return and GST Audits for FY 2018-19 to 31st December 2020; (4) filing the GST Annual Return and GST Audits for FY 2019-20 to 30th June 2021. Consequently, the timeline for filing all the reports and certificates under the Act which fall due along with or in connection with the ITR and GST filing due dates may also be extended to 31st March, 2021.

Suhas Paranjpe President, Bombay Chartered Accountants’ Society

Ketan Mistry President, Chartered Accountants Association,  Ahmedabad

Rasesh Shah President, Chartered Accountants Association, Surat

Anshul Agarwal President, Lucknow Chartered Accountants Society

Kumar S. Jigajinni President Karnataka State Chartered Accountants Association

 

Extend Tax Audit, ITR filing & GST Audit due date for A.Y 2020-21

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