Direct Tax Alert - CBDT further extends due dates for filing of Income Tax Returns and audit reports for FY 2020-21

Background

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had extended deadlines of certain Income-tax compliances¹ under the Income-tax Act, 1961 (ÍT Act) by issuing circulars / notifications in the months of April 2021, May 2021² and June 2021³. In the meantime, the income-tax portal was also completely revamped in June 2021. However, the new income tax portal is still facing some operational issues due to which taxpayers and other stakeholders are facing difficulties in electronic filing of certain Forms (including income-tax returns). In light of the hardship faced by the taxpayers, the CBDT has further extended the due dates for filing of Income Tax Returns, tax audit, transfer pricing (TP) audit and other audit reports for FY 2020-21 by issuing a circular⁴.

We, at BDO in India, have analysed and summarized the said circular hereunder:  

Particulars	Original due date	Extended due date as per Circular 9/2021	Revised due date after further extension
Tax return of non-corporate and non-tax audit taxpayers	31 July 2021	30 September 2021	31 December 2021
Tax return of taxpayers other than those who are required to furnish TP report (including the partners of such firm)	31 October 2021	30 November 2021	15 February 2022
Tax Return of taxpayers who are required to furnish TP report (including partners of such firm)	30 November 2021	31 December 2021	28 February 2022
Belated / revised tax return	31 December 2021	31 January 2022	31 March 2022
Furnishing of Tax Audit Report (Form 3CD) or any other audit report (CA certificate)	30 September 2021	31 October 2021	15 January 2022
Furnishing of TP Report (Form 3CEB)	31 October 2021	30 November 2021	31 January 2022

 

Applicability of section 234A of the IT Act

• The Circular also grants relief from interest under section 234A of the IT Act if the net tax liability (after considering pre-paid taxes) is less than INR 0.1mn.
• Further, it is also clarified that in case of individual taxpayer, taxes paid between 1 April 2021 and 31 July 2021 to be treated as advance tax for the purpose of computing interest under section 234A of the IT Act. For this, the taxpayer should satisfy following conditions:
  • The taxpayer should be resident of India;
  • The taxpayer’s age is 60 years or more at any time during FY 2020-21; and
  • He does not have any income chargeable under the head "Profits and gains of business or profession".

BDO Comments

The timely extension of various deadlines has brought much needed relief to the taxpayers. While the due dates for filing of tax returns and audit reports have been extended, due dates pertaining to tax deducted at source returns, remittances forms, Form 64C, Form 64D etc. have not been extended.

It may also be highlighted that the CBDT circular has extended the due date for filing the tax audit report to 15 January 2022 [for taxpayers whose original due date for filing tax audit report was 30 September 2021] and furnishing of accountant’s report (including TP report) to 31 January 2022 [for taxpayers to whom TP provisions apply]. It appears that inadvertently the CBDT had not provided specific extended due date for furnishing the tax audit report by taxpayers to whom TP provisions apply. As the IT Act specifies the due date of furnishing the tax audit report to be one month prior to the tax return filing due date as per the IT Act, a view may be taken that the due date of furnishing the tax audit report in cases where TP provisions apply ought to be 31 January 2022 (1 month prior to return filing due date of 28 February 2022).

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