The Tax Advocates Association of Gujarat has requested the Finance Ministry to extend the due date of Income Tax Returns (ITR) Filing for the Assessment Year 2023-24 from 31st July 2023 to 31st August 2023.
The representation addressed Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, CBDT Chairman and Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (PCCIT) of Gujarat.
The Tax Advocates Association Gujarat is a professional organization consisting of registered and enrolled Tax Advocates/Consultants affiliated with The Bar Council of Gujarat. Their registered office is located in Ahmedabad.
The letter states that ‘The due date for filing of Income Tax return for A.Y. 2023-24 for taxpayer whose accounts are not audited is fast approaching i.e. 31/07/2023 and if the taxpayer fails to file Income Tax return on or before due date then late fees will be applicable as per taxable income of the assessee. In view of the flood situation in many states across the country it is requested to extend the last date for filing of Income Tax return from 31/07/2023 to 31/08/2023.”
The association earnestly urges consideration of the country’s dire situation, which has resulted in significant disruptions to daily life due to extraordinary and unavoidable circumstances. They express concern about the continuous heavy rainfall, making it challenging for taxpayers to communicate with professionals, and vice versa, regarding tax compliances. Both taxpayers’ and professionals’ businesses have suffered considerable damage as a result of the rain and floods.
The letter also mentioned that “ it would appreciate that particularly with regards to the Non Audited segment of taxpayers who have to file their ITRS on or before 3 1 July, 2023, and considering the verification Of Annual Information Reports which exhaustively provides the details of various transactions and incomes reflected on the portal, the taxpayers are finding it difficult to match and finalizing their Income statements due to non-availability of their accounting staff or else the tax consultants who get stuck with water blockage and disruption of their routine office work due to heavy and consistent Rainfall since last 15 days.”
Further stated, it has been observed that due to the accurate availability of the AIR’s data, the meticulous data preparation Of a tax payer in order to meet with the true and Correct filing of their Income Tax Returns would be of utmost important. Therefore, unless and until the assessee and the Tax Professional sit together for reconciling and finalizing the data, it would be hard to file a Return. And the whole routine was disturbed due to the current situation.
Besides above, since the due date of filing quarter-4 TDS Returns being 31st May of each financial year and most of the Tax payer liable to do this compliance would fail in filing a correct single TDS return, it is observed that the tendency of correcting and revising the TDS returns are huge and large due to various transactions being a part of TDS compliance as per the provisions of law and therefore these tax payers fail in doing a one-time correct single compliance of 26-Q TDS Return correctly which unable the deductee to get his credit in FORM-26AS who would not be able to file his Income Tax Return immediately.
Most of these deductee tax payers who are largely dependent on dividend Income, Interest Income and now Share market capital gains income which has also become subject to TDS on certain transactions as per sec.194LBB, the finalizing Of the data for these types of tax payer gets delayed which results into late filing Of the Income Tax Returns.
The association also sought attention that this year so far there have been number to times the utilities of TDS-TCS in the form of FVU files and the utilities of the Income Tax Returns have been changed. Due to this frequent changes of the utilities, the larger section Of the Tax professionals Who are using the private authorized software also got stuck in getting the updated utilities. This has also delayed the work process.
The association mentioned that “it is very much understandable that these utilities have been frequently changed by CBDT & the system for better accuracy Of the Returns however the practical aspects Of getting the work delayed can also not be denied since the Tax Professionals get unsettled with the changes. The frequent disturbance of the natural calamity in the form of heavy Rain fall has further added to the delayed process of preparing the Returns.”
The association stating the above facts and situations, requested the ministry to extend the due date till 31st August 2023.
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