TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2021 (1) TMI 792
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....n tax compliance requirements in that regard, after the beginning of the Assessment Year in which the same are made applicable; (b) direct the Respondent No.2 to provide the tax payers and the tax practitioners a clear period of 183 and 214 days to prepare and submit the prescribed Reports and Forms, respectively and that in the matter of extension of due dates, consult the stakeholders well in advance and not to keep the matter pending till last moment. (c) direct the Respondent No.2 to extend the due date for filing the Income Tax Returns (ITR) for A.Y. 2020-2021 till 31st March, 2021 and to extend the due date for filing the Tax Audit Reports (TAR) for A.Y. 2020-2021 to 28th February, 2021; (d) for ad-interim reliefs in terms of prayers in clauses above; (e) for costs of the petition; and (f) for such other and further other reliefs as this Hon'ble Court may deem fit and proper in the nature and circumstances of the case." 3. Petitioner No.1 is a trust representing Chartered Accountants, Company Secretaries and Cost Accountants whereas petitioner No.2 is a Chartered Accountant besides being an assessee under the Income Tax Act, 1961 and Vice President of petitioner No....
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....nd Amendment of Certain Provisions) Act, 2020 (which was enacted on 29th September,2020) to 30th November, 2020. Subsequently, vide notification S.O. 3906(E) dated 29th October, 2020 the due dates for filing of returns were further extended to 31st January, 2021 for cases in which tax audit report under section 44AB of the Income tax Act ("the Act") is required to be filed and 31 st December, 2020 for all other cases. Further vide notification S.O.4805 (E) dated 31st December, 2020 the above due dates were further extended to 15th February, 2021 and 10th January, 2021 respectively. 3. As per the provisions of the Act the due date for-filing of the audit report under section 44AB is one month prior to the due date of filing of income tax return. Therefore, the said due date was extended to 31st October, 2020 vide the Taxation and Other laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Act, 2020, 31st December, 2020 vide notification S.O. 3906(E) dated 29th October, 2020 and further to 15th January, 2020 vide notification S.O. 4805 (E) dated 31st December, 2020. 4. The due dates for payment of self-assessment tax, for taxpayers whose amount due does not exceed rupees one la....
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....nbsp; 30-Oct-19 23,125 1,87,444 14-Jan-21 31-Oct-19 42,280 3,15,190 15-Jan-21 Grand Total cumulative 2,88,236 25,37,444 Grand Total cumulative 2,14,804 18,49,461 6. The above table also show that majority of the auditreports under section 44AB of the Act as well as income tax returns are filed within the last few days of the dates only. For A.Y. 2019-20 it is seen that 24% of total audit reports were filed in last 3 days before the due date. Therefore, lesser filing compliances having been made much before the due date cannot be said to be an anomalous situation. 7. A look at the relaxation of similar nature provided byother economies globally makes it clear that the Government of India has been very empathetic to the needs of the taxpayers as compared various other countries. It is apparent from the table no other country has extended the due dates as much as India. Even countries which are comparatively worse hit by COVID19, like the USA, UK etc., have provided no or lesser extensions in due dates. The table below lists such extensions given by a few countries: Country Financial period Individual Corporate Due date E....
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....returns. Any further extension would adversely affect the return filing discipline and shall also cause injustice to those who have taken pains to file the return before the due date. It would also postpone the collection of revenue thereby hampering the efforts of the Government to provide relief to the poor during these COVID times. 10. In this regard, the decisions of the Hon'ble Supreme Court have also been considered. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Govt. of A.P. v. N. Subbarayudu, (2008) 14 SCC 702 at page 703: "5. In a catena of decisions of this Court it has been held that the cut-off date is fixed by the executive authority keeping in view the economic conditions, financial constraints and many other administrative and other attending circumstances. This Court is also of the view that fixing cut-off dates is within the domain of the executive authority and the court should not normally interfere with the fixation of cut-off date by the executive authority unless such order appears to be on the face of it blatantly discriminatory and arbitrary. (See State of Punjab v. Amar Nath Goyal 1(2005) 6 SCC 754 : 2005 SCC (L&S) 910]. *** 7. There may be various consi....
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....Anr. v. Mis Parameshwaran match works Ltd., 1975 (2) SCR 573, at p.579; and Dr. (Mrs.) Sushma Sharma etc. etc. v. State of Rajasthan & Ors. 1985 (3) SCR 243, at p. 269) 12. In view of the above reasons, all the representations for further extension of the due date are hereby rejected." 8. Grievance expressed by the petitioners as highlighted by Mr.Sridharan relates to amendment brought to the Income Tax Rules, 1962 by way of Income Tax (22nd Amendment) Rules, 2020 vide notification dated 1st October, 2020, whereby certain additions have been inserted in section 115BAA of the Act, amongst others, for the assessment year 2020-21 only. That apart, various utilities for income tax returns were made available belatedly on 22nd September, 2020 and subsequently amended on 11th January, 2021. Extension granted on previous occasions carry no meaning as those were granted at the eleventh hour. Further, voluminous instructions for filing income tax return as per revised form running into 700 plus pages was released by the CBDT on 31st October, 2020. All these therefore justifies further extension of the due dates which is a very reasonable prayer. 9. On the other hand, Mr.Singh submits th....