File revised tax returns after rectifying errors

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Most of us collate all information relating to our annual income, investments and tax deducted at source (TDS) before proceeding to file our income tax returns. However, the income tax filing process is a fairly comprehensive exercise. We might miss disclosing an income due to oversight, or claim an exemption or deduction that is not due. What are the options available to us if we make a mistake while filing returns?

We may make an error due to insufficient information or mis-match between Form 16 / Form 16 A and Form 26 AS or any other reason. Errors may also occur in our calculation. The income tax law allows us to file a revised return, correcting the omission or mistake made by us in the original return.

Filing a revised return

You can file a revised return at any time before the end of the assessment year, or before completion of the assessment, whichever is earlier.

For example, for the AY 2019-20, you can file a revised return till 31 March 2020. However, if your assessment is concluded before that date, you cannot file a revised return after completion of your assessment. An income-tax assessment is made through a notice issued by the assessing officer where your income and taxes are determined through assessment proceedings. In some situations this assessment may be completed before the end of the assessment year. If this is the case, you can no longer revise your return.

The revised return has to be filed in the same manner as an original return. While filing, a taxpayer has to choose the option: ‘Revised u/s 139(5)’. A taxpayer has to quote the acknowledgement number and date of filing of the original return while filing the revised return. The revised return substitutes the original return.

You may have filed an original return within the due date, or you may have filed after the due date. A return filed after the due date is called a ‘belated return’. You can revise both—a return filed within the due date or a belated one. The time limit for revising is the same for both as discussed above, i.e., before the end of the assessment year or before completion of assessment, whichever is earlier.

You can revise your income tax return any number of times. However, you are required to mention the acknowledgement number of the original return filed. You must note that ‘revised return’ is an opportunity for revision allowed by the income tax department. Hence, one must not misuse it and revise a return only in the case of a mistake or omission in the original return filed. If you are making errors with revisions, it’s in your interest to seek professional help for your return filing.

As is done with an original return, do remember to e-verify your ‘revised return’ as well. Your ‘revised return’ would not be valid if the same is not e-verified. You can e-verify the ‘revised return’ using an OTP (one-time password) based on Aadhaar or net banking or EVC (electronic verification code). You can also send a signed copy of the ITR V to the Centralized Processing Centre, Bengaluru, within 120 days of filing the ‘revised return’.

Missed Income Tax Return (ITR) Filing Deadline? Here Are Your Options

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Individuals having an annual income of up to Rs2.5 lakh are not required to file income tax returns, according to Income Tax department.

Missed the August 31 deadline for filing income tax return (ITR) for financial year 2018-19 (assessment year 2019-20)? Well, you don’t need to worry as you can still file a belated return. The Income Tax (I-T) department has, however, stipulated a penalty fee ranging from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 10,000 for filing a belated income tax return, according to its website – incometaxindia.gov.in. A belated return of income is furnished under section 139(4) of the Income Tax Act. The amount of penalty payable by the assessees filing a late return increases based on the degree of delay.

Here are key things to know about belated income tax return (ITR):
1. Any person who has not furnished a return of income within the time period allowed under section 139(1) of Income Tax Act can furnish return for any previous year – at any time before the end of the relevant assessment year or before completion of the assessment, whichever is earlier, according to I-T department.

2. A belated return attracts late filing fees under section 234F of the Income Tax Act.

3. Income Tax rules state that a fine of Rs. 5,000 is applicable if an individual files ITR after due date but before December 31.

4. The penalty increases to Rs. 10,000 if the asseesee file the return next year between January 1 and March 31.

5. Those who have an annual income of Rs. 5 lakh, however, are required to pay Rs. 1,000 for filing ITR after the due date.

What are the income tax exemption limits for an individual?

There are three categories of individual taxpayers- individuals (below the age of 60 years) which includes residents as well as non-residents, resident senior citizens (60 years and above but below 80 years of age) and resident super senior citizens (above 80 years of age). Individuals having an annual income of up to Rs. 2.5 lakh are not required to file income tax returns. For senior citizens (individuals between 60 years and 80 years of age), the limit is Rs. 3 lakh, and for very senior citizens (aged above 80 years), the limit is Rs. 5 lakh, according to the taxman.

The Income Tax Department has, on its website, laid out a step-by-step guide for assessees to prepare and submit their income tax return (ITR) online.

 

Deadline to file income tax return for FY2018-19 extended to August 31

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Highlights
1. The finance ministry has extended the deadline for filing income tax return
2. New deadline for ITR submission for FY 2018-19 extended to August 31
3. This year CBDT had extended the deadline for employers to file their TDS returns
4. If the ITR is filed between January 1 and March 31, then late filing fees of Rs 10,000 will be levied

The finance ministry has extended the deadline for filing income tax return (ITR) for FY2018-19 by individuals to August 31, 2019 from July 31, 2019. The extension is a much needed relief as there were multiple problems being faced by individuals in filing returns by July 31. July 31 was the deadline to file income tax returns for most individuals and HUFs. This is that category of individuals and HUFs who are not mandatorily required to get their accounts audited for tax purposes.

Many chartered accountant/tax practioner societies had appealed to the government to extend the ITR filing deadline to provide sufficient time to individuals to file ITR properly. There are many reasons for this.

This year CBDT had extended the deadline for employers to file their TDS returns, i.e., Form 24Q, from May 31, 2019 to June 30, 2019 and consequently deadline of issuing Form 16 by the employer was also extended from June 15, 2019 to July 31, 2019. Consequently, employees wait employees waiting to get their Form 16s to file their ITRs were left with only 21 days to file their tax return by the earlier deadline of July 31.

If the ITR is not filed by an individual before the expiry of the deadline, which is usually July 31, then the individual would have to pay a late filing fee of Rs 5,000, if filed by December 31. If the ITR is filed between January 1 and March 31, then late filing fees of Rs 10,000 will be levied.

With extension of the deadline, individuals will have more time to file their ITRs without worrying about late filing fees.

Even though it is easier to fill salary details in ITR-1 this year as individuals are required to just copy-paste the same from Form 16, sources of interest income are required to be provided in greater detail. This could be a tedious process.

Further, while the tax department has started providing pre-filled XML for ITR forms 1 to 4, the pre-filled XML file for ITR-2 does not contain salary details which individuals have to fill-in by themselves. ITR-2 asks individuals to provide detailed break-up of salary such as basic, HRA and so on received by choosing the options from the drop-down menu.

The calculation of long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax on equity shares and equity mutual funds is also a complicated process due to the grandfathering clause which came into effect from FY2018-19 onwards. In addition to that, individuals were also required to provide details such as ISIN code/Folio number, name of shares/units and so on for sale of equity shares and equity mutual funds. However, later on this was made optional.

Read Original Circular

Source: Economic Times

GST annual return due date extended till 31 August 2019 for FY 2017-18

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35th GST Council Meeting Highlights

35th GST Council Meeting was held on 21 June 2019 at New Delhi, after a gap of more than three months, chaired by Union Finance Minister, Mrs Nirmala Sitharaman.

This GST Council meeting has been called at a time when the countdown to upcoming Union Budget 2019 is less than a month away. A lot of expectations piled up over months concerning various indirect tax issues will be addressed in this meeting.

Highlights of 35th GST Council Meeting

The 35th GST Council meeting concluded with consensus on the following matters

  1. GST annual return due date extended till 31 August 2019 for FY 2017-18

The due date for filing GSTR-9, GSTR-9A, and GSTR-9C for the FY 2017-18 has been extended by two months, till 31 August 2019. Official notification can be made anytime soon.

  1. Aadhaar-enabled GST Registration introduced:

In order to ease the current process of GST registration and reduce the paperwork involved, GST Council has given a go-ahead to a new system for verification of taxpayers registering themselves under GST.  Aadhaar number shall be linked to the GSTIN while generation.

  1. NAA tenure extended by two years

Tenure of National Anti-profiteering Authority (NAA) was due to end by 30 November 2019. GST Council has further extended this tenure by two years, to enable it to take up all the pending cases. Hence, the authority can take up new cases in future due to rate cut issues, indicating that the GST Council has plans for further rationalisation of GST rates.

  1. 10% penalty to apply for any delay in depositing profiteered amount

GST Council has approved a levy of 10% penalty for delay in depositing the profiteered amount by more than 30 days. This is a fair measure that would encourage timely compliance by the taxpayer.

  1. E-invoicing to start from January 2020

The new system for raising all the tax invoices on the GST portal has received in-principle approval for implementation from 1 January 2020. This applies to only B2B invoicing. By this system, no separate e-way bill will be required in case of e-invoice. Returns to be framed from these e-invoices. A phased implementation is being worked out.
Earlier, the government had fixed Rs 50 crore as the limit for the applicability of e-invoicing.

  1. E-ticketing made mandatory for multiplexes

Among other major decisions, the GST Council approved the electronic ticketing system, for multiplexes, having multi-screens. This will help curb cases of tax evasion and the use of black tickets that have been prevalent.

  1. Rate cut decision on electric vehicles, chargers & leasing thereof deferred; Committee to submit its report

The decision to cut GST rates for electric vehicles and electric chargers have been postponed to the next Council meeting. The matter has been referred to the Fitment Committee for checking the feasibility of the rate cut. At present, the GST rates for electric vehicles and electric chargers are 12% and 28% respectively.

Likewise, the valuation rules for goods and services pertaining to solar power generating systems and wind turbines will be placed before the next Fitment Committee. The suggestions made by this Committee will be placed before the next GST Council meeting.

  1. Rate cut for lottery put on hold; Matter to be referred before an Attorney General

The previous council meet had not tabled the rate cut matter for lotteries. The 35th GST Council meeting discussed the matter at length and also brought to light two pending cases on this matter before the high court and supreme court respectively. Although the courts had referred the matter back to GST Council, the Council has decided to consult the Attorney General of India.

  1. GSTAT to be GST Appellate Tribunal.

The GST council also definitively stated the Goods and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal will be the appellate authority and will adjudicate on appeals arising from central and state tax authorities’ in-house dispute resolution system. The states will decide the number of GSTAT required by them as a result of which there can be two tribunals in a single state.

  1. Other Due date extensions
Form New due date
ITC-04 for July 2017- June 2019 31 August 2019
CMP-02 for opting into the composition scheme for service providers under Notification 2/2019-CT rate 31 July 2019
  1. For non-filing of GST returns, E-way bills to be blocked

The law stated that where the GST returns in GSTR-3B/ GSTR-4 is not filed for two consecutive tax periods, e-way bill generation for such taxpayers would be disabled. This will be brought into effect from 21 August 2019, instead of the earlier notified date of 21st June 2019.

CBDT to share data with GST department to trap tax evaders

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Highlights
• This move will apply for all those assessees who have business income and file the returns specified for those with this income i.e. ITR 3 to ITR -7.
• Before sharing any information, the income tax authority shall determine that such information is necessary for the GSTN authority to perform its functions.

The government on Tuesday authorized the income tax department to share details including sales and profits that businesses have reported in their income tax returns with GSTN, the company that processes Goods and Services Tax (GST) returns, to scale up scrutiny and check tax evasion.

The move will allow direct and indirect tax authorities to zero in on discrepancies in the information that business have disclosed in their respective tax return forms and nail tax evaders. The move comes as part of tightening of anti-evasion measures after the GST Council gave several relaxations in recent months to ease the rigors of tax compliance to businesses, especially to small ones. A formal system of data sharing between direct and indirect tax authorities means businesses have to be extra careful while filling up their tax returns and avoid mismatches. The move is significant considering that businesses did not show enthusiasm in opting for a single window tax facility for corporate tax, service tax and central excise in 2006 under the name Large Taxpayer Unit as they apparently preferred to avoid simultaneous scrutiny by different tax authorities.

An office order issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Tuesday authorized the Principal Director General of Income Tax (systems) or Director General of Income Tax (systems) to share specified data with an officer of GSTN. The designated officers from both sides will also decide ways of simultaneous exchange of information

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Order.  F. No. 225/105/2019/ITA.ll              Order Under Section 138(1)(a) of the Income Tax Act, 1961

F. No. 225/105/2019/ITA.ll
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, the 30th  April, 2019

Order In exercise of powers conferred under section 138(1)(a) of the Income tax Act, 1961 (‘Act’), for purposes of sub-clause (i) of section 138(1)(a) of the Act, the Central Board of Direct taxes (‘CBDT’) hereby directs that Principal Director General of Income-tax (Systems) or Director General of Income-tax (Systems), New Delhi shall be the specified income-tax authority for furnishing information respecting assessees to the Nodal Officer, Goods and Services Tax Network (‘GSTN’).

2.  The data/information to be furnished by the specified income-tax authority shall be: (a)  Request based exchange of data, wherein, important financial fields which are captured in the Income Tax Returns (ITRs) such as (i) status of filing of ITR; (ii) turnover; (iii) gross total income, (iv)turnover ratio; (v) GTI range; (vi) turnover range and (vii) any other field, the modalities of which shall be decided by the concerned specified authorities. (b)  Spontaneous exchange of data, the modalities of which shall be decided by the concerned specified authorities. (c)  Automatic exchange of data, the modalities of which shall be decided by the concerned specified authorities.

While furnishing the information, the specified income-tax authority shall form an opinion that sharing of such information is necessary for the purposes of enabling the specified authority in GSTN to perform its functions under the Goods and Services Tax.
3.  To facilitate the process of furnishing information, Principal Director General of Income-tax (Systems) or Director General of Income-tax (Systems) would enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (‘MoU’) with nodal officer, GSTN, which inter-alia would include modalities of exchange of data, maintenance of confidentiality, mechanism for safe preservation of data, weeding out after usage etc. The time line for furnishing information shall also be decided by Pr. Director General of Income-tax (Systems) or Director General of Income-tax (Systems) in consultation with concerned nodal officer and included in the said MoU.
4.  A copy of MoU shall be forwarded to this division for record purposes.
5.  This issues with the approval of Chairman, CBDT.
(Rajarajeswari R.) Under Secretary,
(ITA-Il), CBDT

DIR-3-DIN eKYC annual filing deadline extended to 30th June of next financial year

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MCA extends due date of DIR -3 / E-KYC of Directors

 

 

MINISTRY OF CORPORATE AFFAIRS

NOTIFICATION

New Delhi, 30th April, 2019

 

MCA has notified that the Deadline for Annual Filing of Form DIR 3 ((KYC of Directors) has been Extended from 30 April to 30 June, of the immediately next financial year, i.e. the due date for filing of DIR 3 (KYC of Directors) for Financial Year 2018-19 has been extended from 30 April 2019 to 30 June 2019.

G.S.R.-(E).- In exercise of the powers conferred by the second proviso to sub-section (1), sub-section (4), clause (f) of sub-section (6) of section 149, sub-sections (3) and (a) of section 150, section 151, sub-section (5) of section 152, section 153, section 154, section 157, section 160, sub-section (1) of section 158 and section 170 read with section 469 of the Companies Act, 2013 (18 of 2013), the Central Government hereby makes the following rules further to amend the Companies (Appointment and Qualification of Directors) Rules, 2014, namely: –

1. (1) These rules may be called the Companies (Appointment and Qualification of Directors) Amendment Rules, 2019.

(2) ‘They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

2. In the Companies (Appointment and Qualification of Directors) Rules, 2014, in rule 12A, for the words and figures “on or before 30th, April of immediate next financial year”, the words and figures “on or before 30th June of immediate next financial year” shall be substituted.

[F. N o. 1/22/2013-CL-V]

(K.V.R. Murty)
Joint Secretary to the Government of India

Note: – The principal notification was published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, section 3, sub-section (i) vide number G.S.R. 259(E) dated the 31st March, 2014 and subsequently amended vide the following notifications:-

Read the MCA – Notification here

MCA Extends Due date of filing form INC 22A (ACTIVE) till 15th June 2019

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A non-compliant company would not be able to amend its capital structure or carry out any merger or amalgamation.

The Government of India, through the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, has made it mandatory for to file ACTIVE eForm or INC-22A.  The due date for filing INC-22A was 25th April 2019.

There have been representations made to the MCA for Form INC-22A due date extension.

News coming that government has extended the deadline of filing form INC 22A (ACTIVE) to June 15, gives companies more time to comply, with a provision aimed at spotting shell companies.

The disclosure requirement, which came into effect from February, makes it mandatory for registered companies to upload pictures of their business premises and at least one director.

The last date for filing FORM INC 22A (ACTIVE),which was Thursday, April 25 is now extended till 15th June 2019.

Ministry of Corporate Affairs have received many representations from industry associations for Extension of the Due date with many companies yet to comply thereafter Ministry of Corporate Affairs decided to Extend the Due date of form INC 22A.

Startups have, in particular, pointed out that many of them operate out of homes or shared premises or office suites.

The government had launched a crackdown on shell companies as part of the anti-black money drive and these norms were follow-up measures to establish existence of registered entities. Names of thousands of shell companies were struck off as part of this drive.

This new electronic form INC 22A, which is also known as e-Form ACTIVE (Active Company Tagging Identities and Verification), was notified as part of the Companies (Incorporation) Amendment Rules, 2019 in February.

MCA VPD Service

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs on 24/04/2019 has announced the following on their homepage “VPD service will be unavailable from 8:00AM to 08:00PM IST on 24th – 25th Apr 2019 for system maintenance. Stakeholders are requested to plan accordingly.”

VPD Service means View Public Documents Service which can be accessed from http://www.mca.gov.in/mcafoportal/viewPublicDocumentsFilter.do

With VPD Service being taken down on the same last date for filing of INC22A ACTIVE eForm, there are more chances for the due date being extended for INC-22A filing.

Representation from ICSI

The Institute of Companies Secretaries of India has made a representation to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs on 22nd April 2019. In the letter, the Institute explains the difficulty faced by certain stakeholders while filing Form INC22A-ACTIVE as below:

  • The Auditors’ details not getting prefilled in certain cases.
  • Compliance by dormant companies.
  • Companies in management disputes.
  • Issues faced by corporates having a different financial year.

As the difficulties are still unresolved as on 22nd April 2019, the ICSI has requested the MCA to extend the due date for filing of Form INC-22A.

A non-compliant company would not be able to amend its Capital Structure, Change in Directorship or carry out any Merger or Amalgamation, as per the various provisions listed below:

  • Changes in authorized capital (Form SH-07)
  • Changes in paid-up capital (Form PAS-03)
  • Changes in Director (Form DIR-12) (cessation would be allowed).
  • Changes in Registered Office (Form INC-22)
  • Amalgamation or Merger (INC-28)

If the form is filed within the due date, there is no fee, while late filing will attract a fine of Rs 10,000.

Read the Official Notification from MCA