Extension of due date for filing of Income Tax Returns (Non-audited) for the AY-2022-23 till Oct 2022

The All Orissa Tax Bar Association (AOTBA) has requested Hon’ble Finance Minister, Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman to Extend of Due date for filing of Income Tax Returns (non-audited) for the AY-2022-2023 till October 2022.

The Text of the Representation is Given Below:

Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman,
Hon’ble Finance Minister,
Government of India,
North Block, New Delhi-110001

Sub:-Extension of due date for filing of Income Tax Returns (non-audited) for the AY-2022-2023 till October 2022.

Respected Madam,

All Orissa Tax Bar Association, a premier Association of Advocates, Chartered Accountants, and Tax Practitioners in Odisha, draw your kind attention to the following points for immediate consideration:-

01. That as per earlier directions of the Hon’ble High Courts although CBDT uploaded the schema of the return forms in time but released their utilities in the portal for the A Y-2022-2023 of late.

02. That most of the compliances under the Income Tax Act as well as GST Act fall within the month of July 2022 viz:­ filing of GSTR-1 by 11th of July,2022, filing of GSTR-3B by 24th of July,2022 and filing of e-TDS returns for the Q-4 of FY-2021-2022 by 31st of July,2022. Since 15th June was the last date for filing of Q-4 return for the FY-2021-2022 it will take time for updating in the portal.

03. That apart other difficulties faced by the Tax Professionals are (a) Digital Signature takes time to get it registered in the portal of the Department, (b) frequent errors are occurring while filing returns, and (c) it takes more time for login, ( d) portal of the Department is running very slow ( e) offline utilities were released only on 7th of July,2022, (f) the internet and electricity connection are being disrupted frequently and any repair needs the use of manpower, which is neither available to the assessees nor his/her Tax Consultant.

04. That the recent flood in some of the Districts of Odisha has caused hardship to the assessees to file their returns in time after arranging all the documents.

05. That other points of the suffering of the assessees of Odisha are facing frequent cyclones, rain due to low pressure, poor internet and electricity facilities etc.

06. That before filing the return of income it takes more time to verify the Form No.26-AS, AIS and TIS, etc. This has resulted in an additional burden on the taxpayers to reconcile the differences before filing the ITRs in order to ensure that there would be no further notices, unwarranted adjustments u/s.143(1) of the Act and unnecessary hassles post-filing of the Income Tax Returns.

07. That the Government has no kiosks or helpdesks etc. to facilitate the assessees to file their return of income and at the same time, the assessees were also not educated by the Government to file their return of income online. Hence almost all depend on the Tax Professionals.

08. That the return forms have been made so complicated that it took hours to fill up the same by the Tax Professionals. The condition was even more dreadful in the case of the assessees who wanted to file their own returns by themselves.

09. That most of the Festivals viz:- Car Festival, Ganesh Chaturthi, Janmashtami, Durga Puja, Laxmi Puja, Kali Puja, Diwali, etc. are observed during the month of July to November every year in India.

10. That to the utter surprise, on 22nd July 2022, the Learned Principal Secretary (Revenue), Union Ministry of Finance intimated that the time limit for filing the ITRs would not be extended from 31st July 2022 this year. He further added that 2.3 crore returns were filed by 20th July 2022, and more to come by the end of this month. It is not out of place to mention here that kindly call for the statistics of a number of non­-audited assessees in India, how many has( filed returns by 31st July 2021 and how many Ju1.&. , file:(after the due date. This figure would throw light on the actual position of assessees in our country.

11. That it is a fact that many assessees have submitted some of the papers with the Tax Professionals but in case their returns could not be filed in time for which the said Professionals will be paying late filing fee (u/s. 234F) to the Government on behalf of the assessees from their own pockets.

12. That there is an urgent need to amend the Financial Year ending to 31st of December, extend the dates of filling non-­audited Income Tax returns to 31st October,2022, Tax Audit Report to 31st December,2022 and a suitable date so as to allow reasonable time for the Tax Payers and Professionals to comply with the mandatory statutory compliances.

We will be highly obliged if your Honour would consider the above aspect sympathetically and benevolently for the benefit of the assessees and Tax Consultants of Odisha keeping in view the circumstances and prevailing situations and extend the due date for filing of non-audited Income Tax Returns for the FY-2021-2022 from 31st of July,2022 to 31st of October,2022.

For Official Representation Download PDF Given Below: