The extended due deadline for individuals to file income tax returns for the assessment year 2021-22, December 31, 2021, has recently gone. Despite several demands for further extension from individuals and chartered accountants’ groups, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has ruled out any additional extensions.
Many people have complained in recent days that they were unable to access the income tax return e-filing platform or that there were issues in the last hours before the December 31 deadline. Those who did not submit their income tax returns on time will now be required to file a belated return under section 139 (4) of the Income Tax Act of 1961 by March 31, 2022. This option is available, but it comes with a cost.
The bodies like ICAI and various other persons cited recent technological issues and the unavailability of some forms as factors for its request for a penalty remission.
Issues such as the lack of availability of various forms like, say, Form 3CEB and difficulty submitting forms such as 10B, 10C, etc, are still present. Taxpayers are having trouble filling out data for accounts, reconciliations, confirmations, and preparing inputs for tax audit report
Those who finished the exercise before December 31 should also double-check the tax returns, they filed. You have 120 days from the day you submitted your taxes to do so, beyond which time your returns will be declared invalid. You have the option of going the traditional, physical method or opting for the electronic mode.
During these tough times, it is important that the Government, Finance Minister, the CBDT and various other allied authorities and departments understand the difficulties faced by businesses other than the large corporate companies functioning in a developing economy like India. Standing up with the pandemic and the crisis which was brought in by it is not easy for many business owners as the technical integration db upgrading is not something they can afford with the current business scenario.
Many of them even had to close down their businesses due to the rising debts and reducing business income. And individuals who lost their jobs and struggling to keep up with the living expenses are also finding it tough to pay taxes on account of the income earned by them during the financial year.
With the pandemic hitting us, it is not just the daily living and conducting of business that has come to a pause. But the difficulty in conducting the rituals of auditing, finalizing and filing of the financial statements everything has become difficult due to the fact that virtual working system cannot be easily implemented in every walk of life and business activities.
When these difficulties are coupled with certain other points of difficulty in integration, which is coupled with the inability of many small and medium businesses to adopt the apt technology which would facilitate the integration and make it possible for the auditors and their team to finalize accounts, timely filing of audit reports and ITRs, the delay caused would be huge. When the penalty or fines or interests are levied on them for such delay, it only would add up to their cost to be incurred and the financial liability rather than helping them come out by finding a way to cope with the happenings.
