As we are moving towards the end of October month we can see various due dates of Income tax and GST such as due date for tax audit, GST annual return and audit for FY 2018-19 which are major due dates.
As we are aware professionals are under lot of pressure as many are not able to work with full work force or they are involved in day to day GST filing, further many a times clients are not allowing physical checking or visit business premises to conduct audit due to current situation which has created a hurdle to conduct audit in a effective and efficient manner.
Now BCAS (Bombay Chartered Accountant Society) in addition to their earlier representation which was a month ago for extension of various due date’s, have again made a representation to our honorable Prime minister Shri Narendra Modi for extension of various due dates. Some extracts of which is as under:
“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.
This has resulted into very low number of people working physically 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.
In any case, the ITR 6 form (the Income tax return form used by business entities) and the tax audit form – Form 3CD relevant for AY 2020-21 have been amended very recently. The utility which allow taxpayers to file the Form 3CD has not yet been made available by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).
For corporate tax payers, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs has taken a practical and prudent step of extending the due date for holding the Annual General Meeting (AGM) from 30th September to 31st December 2020. It is challenging to efficiently and effectively adhere to the tax audit filing due date of 31st October, 2020 and ITR filing due date of 30th November, 2020.
For filing of GSTR-9 (Annual Return) and GSTR-9C (Audit Report) for FY 2018-19, the due date was extended by a month very recently up to 31st October, 2020. However, the time provided is very short considering the parallel deadlines under Income Tax Act and Companies Act. The GSTN Portal also presents significant difficulties in terms of filing speeds and downtime.
Our request 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 dates immediately for:
(1) filing of income-tax returns for all the taxpayers for A.Y. 2020-21 to 31st March, 2021;
(2) filing of tax audit reports and transfer pricing reports for A.Y. 2020-21 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.“
To read full representation CLICK HERE.
