Simplify ITR filing, extend deadline, CAs urge govt

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Tribune News Service

Karnal, October 23

Chartered accountants and tax payers urged the Centre to simplify and extend the income tax audit report filing date for at least two months.

Citing new instructions of more than 700 pages before filing the income tax return and audit report, tax professionals said the government claimed to introduce simplification in taxation laws, but instead it had complicated the procedure, which had become a headache for tax payers.

Pankaj Aneja, former chairman of the Karnal branch of Northern India Regional Council (NIRC), said the last date for filing tax audit report was October 31, for which the government had updated the software of filing utility on Thursday, giving very less time to the CAs and taxpayers to file the audit report.

He said it added to the problem as earlier the Covid-induced lockdown had hampered the compilation of the information related to accounts and audit. “We want the government to extend the tax filing date for at least two months,” Aneja said.

Deepak Kapoor, chairman, Karnal branch, said three weeks ago the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had announced changes in the tax audit format, which had been completed on Thursday. Besides, the technical glitches in the recent format had made it impossible to file the reports of all audit reports in due time. “The delay would lead to heavy penalties,” he added.

Tajwant Singh, a taxpayer, said earlier the department had extended the due date for filing returns thrice from March 31 to November 30 for the last year, but this year, no extension had been given, while they had been facing problems while filing the tax audit report. He said the last date of filing the GST audit report was also October 31, so the government must think over it and extend the date to support tax payers.