Are all the due dates of tax audit and Income tax return for FY 2019-20 extended to 31.03.2021 by the bill presented in Lok sabha Dt. 18.09.2020

Ministry of Finance has introduced a bill in Lok sabha on 18.09.2020 which is called “THE TAXATION AND OTHER LAWS (RELAXATION AND AMENDMENT OF CERTAIN PROVISIONS) BILL, 2020”

In this bill there are various clarification and amendments one of which is with regard to due dates of filing return and audit reports.

Section 3 of the above bill reads as under:

3. (1) Where, any time limit has been specified in, or prescribed or notified under, the specified Act which falls during the period from the 20th day of March, 2020 to the 31st day of December, 2020, or such other date after the 31st day of December, 2020, as the Central Government may, by notification, specify in this behalf, for the completion or compliance of such action as—

(a) completion of any proceeding or passing of any order or issuance of any notice, intimation, notification, sanction or approval, or such other action, by whatever name called, by any authority, commission or tribunal, by whatever name called, under the provisions of the specified Act; or

(b) filing of any appeal, reply or application or furnishing of any report, document, return or statement or such other record, by whatever name called, under the provisions of the specified Act; or

(c) in case where the specified Act is the Income-tax Act, 1961,—

(i) making of investment, deposit, payment, acquisition, purchase, construction or such other action, by whatever name called, for the purposes of claiming any deduction, exemption or allowance under the provisions contained in—

(I) sections 54 to 54GB, or under any provisions of Chapter VI-A under the heading “B.-Deductions in respect of certain payments” thereof; or

(II) such other provisions of that Act, subject to fulfillment of such conditions, as the Central Government may, by notification, specify; or

(ii) beginning of manufacture or production of articles or things or providing any services referred to in section 10AA of that Act, in a case where the letter of approval, required to be issued in accordance with the provisions of the Special Economic Zones Act, 2005, has been issued on or before the 31st day of March, 2020,

and where completion or compliance of such action has not been made within such time, then, the time limit for completion or compliance of such action shall, notwithstanding anything contained in the specified Act, stand extended to the 31st day of March, 2021, or such other date after the 31st day of March, 2021, as the Central Government may, by notification, specify in this behalf

The above things were mainly the things already mentioned by the Ministry in one of the earlier Ordinance.

Now, the interesting part of this bill starts from third proviso of section 3 which is as under:

Provided also that where the specified Act is the Income-tax Act, 1961 and the compliance relates to—

(i) furnishing of return under section 139 thereof, for the assessment year commencing on the—

(a) 1st day of April, 2019, the provision of this sub-section shall have the effect as if for the figures, letters and words “31st day of March, 2021”, the figures, letters and words “30th day of September, 2020” had been substituted;

(b) 1st day of April, 2020, the provision of this sub-section shall have the effect as if for the figures, letters and words “31st day of March, 2021”, the figures, letters and words “30th day of November, 2020” had been substituted;

(ii) …

….

….

(vii) furnishing of report of audit under any provision thereof for the assessment year commencing on the 1st day of April, 2020, the provision of this sub-section shall have the effect as if for the figures, letters and words “31st day of March, 2021”, the figures, letters and words “31st day of October, 2020” had been substituted:

Now after reading the above amendments many people believed for once that due date have been extended to 31.03.2021 for all income tax returns and tax audit report as they read this in isolation.

However, that’s not the case. If one reads the above bill carefully the first sub section extends all the due date between 20.03.2020 to 31.12.2020 to 31.03.2021 whereas the next proviso clarifies that for various due dates shall not extend to 31.03.2021 where it will extend to some specific date. For eg:

1. Due date for return of A.Y. 2019-20 will be 30.09.2020 instead of 31.03.2021.

2. Due date for return of A.Y. 2020-21 u/s 139(1) will be 30.11.2020 instead of 31.03.2021.

3. Due date for tax audit report for A.Y. 2020-21 will be 31.10.2020 instead of 31.03.2021.

Thus, this was the confusion which was created and hence all the due dates which were extended by either ordinance or press will now be incorporated by virtue of this bill.

It also talks about interest u/s 243A where tax payment was more than Rs. 1 lakh or payment of tax by senior citizen to be considered as advance tax etc.

Thus, as far as due dates is concerned the bill only clarifies that the blanket extension of due date by earlier ordinance won’t be applicable to above specific due dates or transactions.

There are various other amendments which shall be discussed in detail in future post.

To read full bill CLICK HERE.