The high court of Gujarat has asked the Central Board of Direct Taxes ( CBDT) to fix the technical problems which has been faced by the taxpayers while filing the Tax Audit Report (TAR ) and Income tax returns (ITR), warning to expand the deadline to March 15 in case the job is not been totally prompted, a Times of India news report said. Moreover, the court stated that its summons has consequences throughout the country.
For the assessment year 2021-22, the last date for filing TAR and ITR (for specified taxpayers) is February 15 and March 15, simultaneously.
As per the TOI news analysis, a chartered accountants’ association has previously asked for a deadline adjunct, mentioning issues with the freshly upgraded IT site. They have also asked to be able to file income tax returns and individually report them.
Earlier Story
Central Board of Direct Taxes told the Gujarat High court that the physical filing of the tax audit reports as well as the ITR is not accommodated.
Towards the appeal furnished by the southern Gujarat income tax bar association, the tax council in its answer asks to submit physical copies of tax returns and audit reports.
The applicant intends to prolong the last date to furnish the tax returns and file the tax audit reports also not to impose the interest or penalty on the belated filings due to the issues in the tax e-portal.
In the former week, the last date to furnish the ITR and distinct reports of the audit for the assessment year 2021-22 gets prolonged by the tax council.
The same action was done as various CA groups furnished the representations showing the issues faced in completing the filings because of the spike in the Omicron covid cases and because of the technical issues in the income tax e-filing platform.
Senior Advocate Manish Bhatt, in front of CBDT commenting that opposite to the GST, returns the physical filing of the tax audit reports and income tax returns is not possible as the e-portal only takes the digital figures.
The court was indeed mentioned that the upgraded portal takes less time to process the returns.
The earlier system took 63 days to process the income tax returns. The new portal, with no other problems, will take one day.
Also, the portal has the helpline numbers as well as the multilayered grievance cell. If any assessee sees that technical problem within the portal then they asked to contact the helpline he mentioned.
“But the helpline is not helping, that’s what the petitioners are saying, bench head by the Justice JB Paridwala interrupted.”
Senior Advocate Tushar Hemani, in front of the applicant association, mentioned that the assessee suffers from several issues in the tax portal when he uploads the tax returns and files the audit reports.
Only 35% furnished their audit reports Hemani Added.
Court added that the same would not direct the ministry on what is needed to perform.
As a writ court, we are finding it difficult to tell the ministry to accept returns in manual (physical) form. It is a policy decision.
Hemani when recommending another solution answered “But the policy is not working,”
When an assessee is unable to upload his returns due to the interruptions of the technical issues in the portal then the government would come up with an email id and the assessee is permitted to send the email to that ID along with the ITR and the tax audit report as an attachment he suggested.
Post to which the CBDT would either upload return directly or permit the assessee to upload when the portal is free from the issue. The email has been sent via assessee would see as the document that displays that the assessee complied with the income tax provisions prior to the last date.
Indeed the email receipt via council shall be a recognition of posing the furnished Income tax return.
Vyas tells the court about the practicality of the provided suggestion.
Cross questioning upon the technical issues towards the hearing progressed Bhatt mentioned that the interest liability towards the ITR filing and the tax audit report is not influenced because of the issues in the portal.
At this time the court questioned whether the issues were region-specific.
Do the glitches appear zone wise? Once there is a glitch, no one in the country will be able to upload it?
Vyas answered yes, commenting that the portal issues will no more carry on in the future and are only present for a short span of time.
“There is no permanent and continuous glitch as I understand, in technological terms.”
The concern is that the subsequent heard on 18th Jan.
The same is not the only appeal towards the high court highlighting the issues seen by the assessee in furnishing the income tax report and audit reports due to the errors in the tax portals.
On January 1st week the court circulated the notice for the appeal furnished by the Surat Chartered Accountants Association, that urged to direct the revenue department to not take an interest upon the belated filings particularly since the CBDT prolonged filings last dates on various occasions because of the issues in the e-filing framework.
On a concerning note, the Rajasthan high court has refused the appeal made by the tax bar association Jodhpur sought related benefits. The court was asked to perform that after the last date to furnish the returns and the tax audit reports were prolonged.
Taking part within the order Chief Justice Akil Kureshi and Justice Rekha Borana mentioned with the hope that CBDT will quickly fix the issues seen via assessees in the portal excluding any interruption.
At this stage, we leave it to the administration to deal with these issues at its level. We are hopeful that proper resolution of the difficulties of assessees would be made at the level of the administration itself without the requirement of Court’s intervention.”
