Last date to submit ITR extended to August, 31 2018 – CBDT

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CBDT extended the last date to August 31 to file income tax return

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has extended the due date for filing of Income Tax Returns (ITR) to 31st August, 2018.  Earlier, the due date for filing of ITR for Assessment Year 2018-19 was July 31, 2018.

As the due date has been coming closer, the Board had received several requests from the tax practitioners body and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) requesting a due date extension due to several reasons.

CBDT stated in a circular issued today, “The due date for filing of Income Tax Returns for Assessment Year 2018-19 is 31.07.2018 for certain categories of taxpayers. Upon consideration of the matter, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) extends the ‘due date’ for filing of Income Tax Returns from 31st July, 2018 to 31st August, 2018 in respect of the said categories of taxpayers.

Generally, the income tax department extends the deadline by only a few days, but this year the deadline has been extended by full one month.

 

 

 

 

Kuldip Kumar, partner and leader, personal tax, PwC India, said, “Although due date extended.. those who have taxes to pay should pay before July 31 to save additional one month interest under section 234B.”

So, now if you don’t file ITR by the end of July then it won’t be treated as a belated return, as the new deadline is August 31, 2018.  But if you miss the deadline of August 31, then according to the Income Tax Act, for returns pertaining to any financial year the last date for late return would be the end of the relevant assessment year. For example: For Financial Year 2017-18 (AY 2018-19), the last date would be 31 March 2019, and it would be your last opportunity to file the return.

From the current Assessment Year onwards, non-filing of ITR before due date will invite late fee of Rs. 1,000/5,000/10,000 as the case may be, under section 234F of the Income Tax Act.

The Board had notified the new Income Tax Return forms for the assessment year 2018-19 on April 5. The income Tax department has launched all the income tax forms for e-filing after more than a month of them being notified.

Further, due to GST and the over burden of compliance procedure, the tax practitioners were unable to finish their IT works. It is in this background, the people urged the Board to extend due date.

Read the Notification Circular: CBDT Notification

No Due Date Extension for filing Income Tax – CBDT

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CBDT confirms News of Income Tax Return filing due date extension in Social Media is Fake

 

CBDT – extension in due date for non-tax audit cases is fake and there are no such plans to extend this deadline beyond 31st July, 2018

CIRCULAR No.4/2018

 

F.No.370889/25/2018
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Direct Taxes

 

New Delhi, Dated 21st July, 2018

 

Order under section 139(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (‘the Act’)

This Circular is issued in pursuant to 139(1) of the Tax Act, 1961 is to clarify that rumors spreading across in media regarding extension in due date for non-tax audit is fake and no such plans to extend this deadline beyond 31st July, 2018. The department already received over 1 crore returns filed electronically.

As per Section 234F of the Income Tax Act, from 1st April 2018, the penalty for late filing income tax return would be as

(a) five thousand rupees, if the return is furnished on or the 31st day of December of the assessment year;

(b) ten thousand rupees in any other case:

Provided further that if the total income of the person not exceed five lakh rupees, the fee payable under this section shall not exceed one thousand rupees. Therefore, the assessees are hereby asked to file their ITRs before the due date to avoid the penalty.

 

(Sanyam Suresh Joshi)

DCIT, CBDT

Copy to:

1. PS to FM/OSD to FM/PS to MoS(F)/OSD to MoS(F)
2. PS to Secretary (Revenue)
3. Chairman, CBDT
4. All Members, CBDT
5. All Pr. DGsIT/Pr. CCsIT
6. All Joint Secretaries/CsIT, CBDT
7. Directors/Deputy Secretaries/Under Secretaries of CBDT
8. DIT (RSP&PR)/Systems, New Delhi
9. The C&AG of India (30 copies)
10. The JS & Legal Adviser, Ministry of Law & Justice, New Delhi
11. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India
12. All Chambers of Commerce
13. CIT (M&TP), Official Spokesperson of CBDT
14. O/o Pr. DGIT (Systems) for uploading on official website

Source: CBDT_Circular

GST payers can move jurisdictional tax officer to change username, password

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Taxpayer would be required to approach the concerned jurisdictional tax officer to get the password for the GST Identification Number (GSTIN) allotted to the business

The Finance Ministry on Thursday said that GST registrants can approach jurisdictional tax officer with valid documents to change the e-mail and mobile number recorded against their GST identification number (GSTIN).

 

The revenue department had received complaints from taxpayers that the intermediaries who were authorised by them to apply for registration on their behalf had used their own e-mail and mobile number during the process.

 

These intermediaries are not sharing the user details with the taxpayers.

 

“With a view to address this difficulty of the taxpayer, a functionality to update e-mail and mobile number of the authorised signatory is available in the GST system.

 

“The e-mail and mobile number can be updated by the concerned jurisdictional tax authority of the taxpayer,” the ministry said in a statement.

 

Taxpayer would be required to approach the concerned jurisdictional tax officer to get the password for the GSTIN allotted to the business. Taxpayers can check jurisdiction through ‘Search Taxpayer’ option available on GST portal.

 

Taxpayer would be required to provide valid documents to the tax officer as proof of his/her identity and to validate the business details related to his GSTIN. Following this, the officer would authenticate the activity and enter the new e-mail address and mobile number provided by the taxpayer.

 

After uploading of the documents, tax officer will reset the password for GSTIN in the system and username and temporary password reset will be communicated to the e-mail address as entered by the officer.

 

Taxpayer would then have to login on GST portal using the username and temporary password e-mailed to him. The username and password can now be changed by the taxpayer.

 

Source: Business Standard

GST refund drive extended till June 16

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Relief for exporters as govt extends special GST refund drive till June 16

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has extended the refund fortnight for fast track clearance of pending dues to exporters by two days till June 16.

The central and state tax officials have already cleared refunds worth over Rs 7,500 crore since May 31, when the special drive to clear exporters refund was launched.

“In view of overwhelming response from exporters and pending claims, the period of refund fortnight is being extended by two more days i.e up to June 16, 2018,” a finance ministry statement said.

With about Rs 14,000 crore of exporters refunds stuck due to various mismatches, the CBIC had organised the second phase of the special fortnight to fast track clearances.During the first phase, between March 15 and 29, an amount of Rs 5,350 crore was sanctioned.

The ministry further said, in case of short payment of integrated GST (IGST), small exporters whose aggregate IGST refund amount for the period July 2017 to March 2018 is up to Rs 10 lakhs are required to submit self-certified copies of proof of payment of IGST to the concerned customs office at the port of export.

Others are required to submit a certificate from a Chartered Accountant including the proof of payment.

All GST refund claimants, whose claims are still pending, are being encouraged to approach their jurisdictional tax authority for disposal of their refund claims submitted on or before April 30, the statement said.

“In case of any problem, exporters are advised to approach the Commissioner of Customs /Jurisdictional Tax Authorities. The government is committed to clear all the remaining refund claims filed up to 30.04.2018 are still pending,” it added.

GST monthly revenue touches Rs 1 lakh crore for first time; govt credits better compliance

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The government announced today that the GST revenue for the month of April has crossed Rs 1 lakh crore – a first since GST was rolled out in July last year. As mentioned by the Ministry of Finance, the total gross GST revenue collected in April is Rs 1,03,458 crore.

Out of that CGST (Central GST) amounted to Rs 18,652 crore, while SGST (State GST) amounted to Rs 25,704 crore. IGST (Integrated GST) stood at Rs 50,548 crore, including Rs 21,246 crore that was collected on imports, and cess at Rs 8,554 crore, including Rs 702 crore collected on imports.

As mentioned in ANI, the finance ministry also noted that the central and state governments earned a total revenue of Rs 32,493 crore in CGST and Rs 40,257 in SGST, after settlement in April.

Moreover, the ministry noted that out of 87.12 lakh, 60.47 lakh GSTR 3B returns were filed for March till April 30. That makes 69.5% of the eligible proportion. The ministry also said that 11.47 lakh out of 19.31 lakh composition dealers filed their quarterly return (GSTR 4), amounting to 59.40%. In total Rs 579 crore in taxes were paid, which is included in the aforementioned GST revenue figure.

The ministry said, “The buoyancy in the tax revenue of GST reflects the upswing in the economy and better compliance. However, it is usually noticed that in the last month of the financial year, people also try to pay arrears of some of the previous months. Therefore, this month’s revenue cannot be taken as a trend for the future.”

The recently introduced e-way bill might be the reason behind the sudden spike in GST revenues. E-way bill, which is generated for consignments moving inter-state or intra-state was rolled out in April. The inter-state e-way bill was introduced in April 1, while the intra-state one was pushed to April 15.

The GST Council is scheduled to meet on May 4 next.

Source: Business Today

CBEC to verify GST transitional credit claims of 50,000 taxpayers

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In order to check “frivolous and fraudulent” tax credit claims by businesses, the CBEC has decided to verify demands of top 50,000 tax payers claiming maximum GST transitional credit, starting with those where the quantum exceeds Rs 25 lakh.

The verification of “unreasonable” transitional credit claims would be conducted in four phases, a source said, adding that credit verification will remain one of the focus areas in 2018-19.

As part of transition to GST last July, taxpayers were allowed to file Form TRAN-1 and avail tax credit on the basis of closing balance of the credit declared in the last return under the pre-Goods and Services Tax regime.

In order to check “frivolous and fraudulent” transitional credit claims, the CBEC has shared with field offices the list of 50,000 taxpayers whose claims would be further scrutinised.

It is suspected that some of these businesses might have obtained a registration under the GST only to claim transitional credit benefits, the source added.

In the first phase, the tax officers will verify transitional credit claims where the growth is more than 25 per cent or the credit availed is in excess of Rs 25 lakh. This verification is to be completed by June and a status report has to be given to the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) by July 10.

One-third of the remaining claims of 50,000 taxpayers will be verified in three phases — July-September, October-December and January-March (2019).

Taxpayers who have claimed transitional tax credit of more than Rs 25 lakh and have reported 25 per cent increase in such claims are also likely to be asked to submit a detailed statement of purchases during October 1, 2016, to June 30, 2017, the source said.

According to revenue department data, as much as Rs 65,000 crore of transitional input tax credit was claimed by businesses as on September 2017.

Concerned over large claims for which there was no “bona-fide explanation”, the revenue department had asked taxpayers to revise their claim forms by December 27, 2017, or face enforcement action.

Worried over huge claims, the CBEC conducted a “preliminary scrutiny” following which it has now decided to further verify the “correctness of the transitional credit in a more focused and concerted manner”, the source said.

However, in a communication to the field formation, the CBEC said that efforts should be made on the basis of data already available with the department without contacting the taxpayer.

It further said wherever contact with taxpayers is absolutely essential, it should be done with due caution.

“Summon should be issued only where the taxpayer is not sharing information even after repeated requests and lapse of an unreasonable period of time,” it said.

AMRG & Associated Partner Rajat Mohan said the move comes amid disappointing tax collections.

“A detailed verification of transitional credit for pre-decided 50,000 GSTIN on all India basis comes as a no surprise. Credit verification would be a focus area in the new financial year, and big data analytics would be of great aid,” Mohan said.

As per a finance ministry reply to the Lok Sabha, GST mop up was Rs 93,590 crore in July, Rs 93,029 crore in August, Rs 95,132 crore in September and Rs 85,931 crore in October.

The collections in November stood at Rs 83,716 crore, December (Rs 88,929 crore) and January (Rs 88,047 crore).

Source:  Times of India