Tax Audit Due Date should be Permanently Shifted to 31st October?

The September month was Full of Tax Compliances and various due dates. Today is the last of this month and today also is the due date for the tax audit.

An income tax audit is a thorough examination of a business entity’s or professional individual’s books of accounts, such as doctors, lawyers, chartered accountants (CA), and so on. Certain taxpayers with business or professional income exceeding a certain threshold are required to undergo an income tax audit. The Income Tax Department has established a deadline for the submission of the income tax audit report. The deadline to submit the tax audit report is 30th September 2023 i.e. today.

CBDT earlier announced that the tax audit due date for assessment year (AY) 2023-24 has been extended to October 31, 2023. This means that taxpayers who must have their accounts audited will have more time to file their tax returns. The CBDT has also extended the deadlines for filing Form 10B/10BB (audit report) and Form ITR-7 (income tax return for trusts and other entities) until October 31, 2023.

As today is the last day for submitting tax audit report, the Twitter is exploding with a permanent extension of tax audit due date to 31st October. Various Tax Professionals tweeted to ask for a permanent extension of date. The Rationale behind the same is that normally, when Tax Audit is complete, we are in position to file ITR as well. So why not keep it 31st October 2023 date for both?

Whats your view point? Please do comment.