MCA extends Annual Return due date upto 31 Dec. 2018

MCA extends due date for Filings of Financial Statements & Annual Return up to 31.12.2018

Keeping in view the requests received from various stakeholders seeking extension of time for filing of financial statements for the financial year ended 31.03.2018 on account of various factors, it has been decided to relax the additional fees payable by companies on e-forms AOC-4, AOC (CFS) AOC-4 XBRL and e- Form MGT-7 upto 31.12.2018 wherever additional fee is applicable.

 

General Circular No. 10/2018

F.No. 01/34/2013 CL-V
Government of India
Ministry of Corporate Affairs

5th Floor, ‘A’ Wing, Shastri Bhawan,
Dr. Rajendra Prasad Road, New Delhi-1

Dated: 29.10.2018

To
 All Regional Directors,
 All Registrar of Companies, All Stakeholders.

Subject: Relaxation of additional fees and extension of last date of in filing of forms MGT-7 (Annual Return) and AOC-4 (Financial Statements) under the Companies Act, 2013– – reg.

Keeping in view the requests received from various stakeholders seeking extension of time for filing of financial statements for the financial year ended 31.03.2018 on account of various factors , it has been decided to relax the additional fees payable by companies on e-forms AOC-4, AOC (CFS) A0C-4 XBRL and e- Form MGT-7 upto 31.12.2018, wherever additional fee is applicable.

2. This issues with the approval of the competent authority.

Yours faithfully,

(KMS Narayanan)

Assistant Director (policy)

011-23387263

For the original circular, please read:  MCA General Circular No. 10/2018 dt. 29 Oct. 2018

GSTN enables facility to claim Refund of Tax due to any Other Reason

The facility to claim Refund on account of any other reason has now enabled in the Goods and Services Tax Network ( GSTN ).

In statement released today, the official twitter account of the GSTN tweeted that “Facility to claim Refund on account of any other reason has been enabled on GST Portal for the taxpayers.”

Last day, the GST portal had updated a new functionality enabling the taxpayers to claim refund on account of excess payment of tax.

“Facility to claim refund on account of excess payment of tax has been enabled on GST Portal for the taxpayers,” GSTN said in a statement. On Tuesday, the GSTN had updated two new features such as, the facility to upload statement 4 for Refund and the facility for amendment in Registration of Core fields.

 

CBDT further extends due date for filing IT Returns & Tax Audit Reports up to 31 October.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has further extended due date for filing Income Tax Returns and Audit Reports to October 31st.

The due date for filing of Income Tax Returns and Audit Reports for Assessment Year 2018-19 is 30th September, 2018 for certain categories of taxpayers.

The CBDT had earlier extended the date for filing of Income Tax Returns and various reports of Audit to 15th October 2018.

Upon consideration of representations from various stakeholders, CBDT further extends the ‘due date’ for filing of Income Tax Returns as well as reports of Audit (which were required to be filed by the said specified date) from 15th October, 2018 to 31st October, 2018 in respect of the said categories of taxpayers.

However, as specified in earlier order dated 24.09.2018, assessees filing their return of income within the extended due date shall be liable for levy of interest as per provisions of section 234A of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

CBDT extends deadline for filing ITRs with audit reports to Oct 15, 2018

 

The government has extended last date for filing of income tax returns (ITRs) for those taxpayers who are required to file their returns along with audit reports from Sept 30 to Oct 15, 2018.

 

The text of the notification by CBDT is as below:

CBDT has extended the due date for filing Income Tax Returns and audit reports from 30th September 2018 to 15th October 2018. However, there shall be no extension of the due date for purpose of Explanation 1 to section 234A (Interest for defaults in furnishing return) of the Act and the assessee shall remain liable for payment of interest as per provisions of section 234A of the Act.

                                  In its tweet, the income tax department has posted – “CBDT extends due date for filing of Income Tax Returns & audit reports from 30th Sept,2018 to 15th Oct, 2018 for all assessees liable to file ITRs for AY 2018-19 by 30.09.2018,after considering representations from stakeholders.”

 

However, it adds that “Liability to pay interest under section 234A of Income Tax Act will remain.” It is important to note that if one has any unpaid tax liability then penal interest on the same may be leviable.

Typically, tax practitioner bodies ask for an extension from the government, saying they needed more time to file returns for entities where tax audit report or transfer pricing report or other audit reports are required to be filed as per the law.

Even last year, on consideration of representations from various stakeholders and to facilitate ease of compliance by the taxpayers, CBDT had extended the ‘due-date’ for filing Income Tax Returns with audit reports as prescribed under the Income-tax Act,1961 from 31st October, 2017 to 7th November, 2017 for AY 2017-18.

Tax audit is a review of accounts of taxpayers with business or profession from an income tax point of view such as incomes, deduction, compliance with tax laws, etc. Taxpayers with turnover exceeding Rs 1 crore in business (not opted for presumptive taxation scheme) or whose gross professional income is over Rs 50 lakh need to get a tax audit done. Tax audit report needs to be filed on or before the 30 September of the subsequent financial year in case of taxpayers who have not entered into an international transaction.

Some chartered accountants have argued that they have been busy filing returns of individual tax payers like the salaried class till August 30. Consequently they have had little time to devote to preparing the audit reports for those tax payers whose accounts are required to be compulsorily subjected to tax audit. The number of clauses in the audit reports have also increased thereby increasing the time required, they have pointed out. For these reasons they had requested an extension of the deadline for filing tax returns with audit reports.

Highlights:

  • An audit is a review of accounts of taxpayers with business or profession from an income tax point of view such as incomes, deduction, compliance with tax laws, etc.
  • Those with turnover exceeding Rs 1 cr in business or whose gross professional income is over Rs 50 lakh need to get a tax audit done.
  • It is important to note that if one has any unpaid tax liability then penal interest on the same may be leviable.

CBDT Notification

CBIC to weed out a million assessees from GST tax net

Move to weed out the assessees from GST net will ensure effective tax base

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has initiated a process to weed out approximately 12 lakh Goods and Services Tax (GST) assessees who have fallen off the tax map.

“The CBIC has communicated to field officers to take the process further. Now, field officers will issue show-cause notices, which is just a formality but a requirement under the law, and then complete the process for deregistration,” a Finance Ministry official told BusinessLine.

Currently, there are over 1 crore registered assessees on the GST Nework (GSTN), but the number of those who file returns is much less.

Under GST rules, any entity registered under the previous Sales Tax–VAT (Value-Added Tax), Central Excise Duty of Service Tax regulations was required to be enrolled under the GST and get provisional certificates.

However, if the turnover of the entity is less than the GST threshold and he/she is not willing to go for voluntary registrations, such assessees had the option to get the provisional registration cancelled and move out of the GST net. However, many assessees fail to complete the process, and so they continued to be a part of the GST-assessee base.

GST was implemented from July 1 last year. In the very first year, the number of registered assessees increased by 72.5 per cent to 1.14 crore. Of these, 66.17 lakh were existing taxpayers, that is, those registered under previous VAT/Sales Tax, Central Excise or Service Tax regime; the remaining were new ones. The Government believes that the new assessees came into the net as a result of demonetisation, which resulted in the formalisation of the economy, prompting more and more people to get registered.

During the pre-GST regime, States had different slabs for registration under VAT/ST, which was as low as 1 lakh and could go up to 10 lakh: the thresholds for Service Tax and Central Excise were 10 lakh and 1.5 crore, respectively. Now the universal threshold is 20 lakh (or 10 lakh in some States), which means there will be fewer people paying tax and filing returns.

Another Finance Ministry official said that while a wider tax base is good, there is also a need to ensure an ‘effective’ tax base; the latest initiative will help achieve that. This kind of a tax base will serve two purposes: it will lighten the burden on the GSTN, and it will give a real picture of the indirect tax regime.

Source: Business Line

Surge in filing of Income Tax Returns by 71% upto 31st August,2018

Filing of Income Tax Returns registers an upsurge of 71% up to 31st August,2018

There has been a marked improvement in the number of Income Tax Returns (ITRs) filed during FY 2018 (upto 31/08/2018, the extended due date of filing) compared to the corresponding period in the preceding year.

The total number of ITRs e-filed upto 31/08/2018 was 5.42 crore as against 3.17 crore upto 31/08/2017, marking an increase of 70.86%.

Almost 34.95 lakh returns were uploaded on 31/08/2018 itself, being the last date of the extended due date of filing of ITRs.

A remarkable increase is seen in the number of ITRs in 2 categories ie ITRs filed by salaried Individuals (ITR-1& 2) as also those availing the benefit of the Presumptive Taxation Scheme (ITR-4).

The total number of e-returns of salaried Individual taxpayers filed till 31/08/2018 increased to 3.37 crore from 2.19 crore returns filed during the corresponding period of 2017, registering an increase of 1.18 crore returns translating into a growth of almost 54%.

A commendable growth has been witnessed in the number of returns e-filed by persons availing the benefit of Presumptive Tax, with 1.17 crore returns having been filed upto 31st August, 2018 compared to 14.93 lakh returns upto 31st August, 2017 registering a massive increase of 681.69%.

The increase in the number of returns reveals a marked improvement in the level of voluntary compliance of taxpayers which can be attributed to several factors, including the impact of demonetisation, enhanced persuasion & education of taxpayers as also the impending provision of late fee which would be effective on late filing of returns.

This is indicative of an India moving steadily towards a more tax compliant society & reflects the impact of continuous leveraging of technology to improve taxpayer service delivery.