ACCOUNTING & TAXATION
Relief for Compliance Related to GST in Tax Audit Report
The Government vide CBDT circular No. 10/2020 Dated 24 April 2020 deferred reporting of Compliance related to Goods and Service Tax (GST) in the income tax audit reports by a year. The move is a major relief to businesses struggling to cope with the challenges of the Covid -19 pandemic. The tax audit report form was amended in 2018 to include details of GST registration however, kept under abeyance till March 2020. Now, the GST related compliance reporting in the tax audit report has been deferred till March 2021.
As per section 44B of the Income Tax Act 1961, particulars in Form 3CD is required to be furnished in Tax Audit Report. Reporting under Clause 44 of Form 3CD is to be furnished by the person liable for Tax Audit irrespective of the fact whether he is registered under GST or not.
Clause 44 – Break up of total expenditure of entities registered or not registered under GST Act
| Sl | Total amount of expenditure incurred during the year | Expenditure in respect of entities registered under GST | Expenditure relating to entities not registered under GST | |||
| Relating to Goods / Services exempt under GST | Relating to entities under
composition scheme |
Relating to other GST Registered entities | Total Payment to GST Registered Entities | |||
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | (7) |
Furnishing all the details in Tax Audit Report is a time consuming and cumbersome task for the taxpayers.
CBDT said in a notification that several representations have been received about difficulty in complying with the reporting requirements in view of the pandemic. The GST related compliance reporting in the tax audit report has been deferred till March 2021.
The decision of Government to defer the tedious reporting requirements is a major relief for taxpayers while filing Tax Audit Report for Financial Year 2019-20.