According to the Ministry of Finance, the deadline for filing income tax returns (ITR) has been extended to March 15, 2022, whereas the deadline for submitting tax audit reports has been pushed back to February 15, 2022.
The decision comes after several chartered accounting associations called for an extension, citing the impact of COVID-19 and glitches in the e-filing portal as reasons for the delay.
Under the erstwhile order issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the deadline for filing individual income tax returns had lapsed on December 31, 2021. The same has now been extended until March 15, via a circular issued by the finance ministry.
It was earlier planned to file tax audit reports by January 15, 2022. Submissions made after the specified date were subject to a penalty of 0.5% of the turnover, or a maximum of Rs 1.5 lakh.
According to the finance ministry’s circular, the deadline has been pushed to February 15. “The due date of furnishing of Report of Audit under any provision of the Act for the Previous Year 2020-21, which was 31st October, 2021, in the case of assessees referred in clause (aa) of Explanation 2 to sub-section (1) of section 139 of the Act, is hereby extended to 15th February, 2022,” the statement reads.
ICAI, the largest accounting body representing CAs across the country, had written to the CBDT last week asking that the proposed penalties for late submissions be reconsidered.
“Issues like non-availability of Form No. 3CEB and difficulties in filing forms like 10C and 10B are still continuing. Taxpayers are finding difficulties in completing data for completing accounts, confirmations, reconciliation and preparing inputs for compiling tax audit reports,” noted the ICAI in a statement.
