Unchallengeable and Actual justified reasons for extending date of TAR
by any competent authority, requiring urgent attention & action by
CA’s, Advocates, Assesses and general public at large to show true
picture to Courts and Government for at least minimum justice to the
assesses on whose tax payment government and entire departments runs.
In my considered view, following facts have not been brought to the
kind notice of any High court, otherwise there was no reason for not
extending the TAR date:-
A. Details of irrecoverable losses to CA’s due to unjustified,
unreasonable and unexamined delay in notification of forms by 128 days
by department, for the sake of nothing.(page no- 1 to 4)
B. Details of irrecoverable losses to Assessees at large due to
delay in notification of forms by 128 days by department, for the sake
of nothing.(page No- 4 to5)
C. Details of irrecoverable losses to General Public at large due
to delay in notification of forms by 128 days by department, for the
sake of nothing.(page No- 6)
D. Details of irrecoverable losses to Government and tax recovery
at large due to delay in notification of forms by 128 days by
department, for the sake of nothing (page No-6).
DETAILED EXPLANATION
1. Details of irrecoverable losses to CA’s due to unjustified,
unreasonable and unexamined delay in notification of forms by 128 days
by department, for the sake of nothing.
a) Any CA/ Professional (both male and female) in its normal
course of personal and professional life, like any other human being
(including income tax officials, judges, ministers etc) has by and
large following schedule among others:-
- Some time for health such as morning walk , exercise , yoga etc;
- Duties towards children (for sending school, preparing food etc);
- Taking care of elderly family members of the family;
- Completing family duties of attending family , friends and
clients functions in the time of happiness and crisis ;
- Helping children for exams, going to parent teacher
meetings and playing with children, taking care of other needs of
children etc.
- During weekends, shopping for household articles, outing
with family etc and completing other pending personal and family
obligations.
- Sparing some time for seminars etc to remain updated on
professional front;
- Contributing towards Clean India drive, make in India drive
and various other initiatives of Government of India and Hon,ble Prime
Minister of India.
- And besides above personal life and duties going to office
and performing therein all types of official and professional duties
which among others includes:-
a) Statutory audits;
b) Consultation to clients;
c) Preparing bank proposals;
d) going to banks and other financial institutions for financial
assistance of clients which in turn help establishment of industry for
economy and national growth;
e) preparing for income tax cases f) going to income tax department
for presenting in the matters of income tax cases;
g) handling service tax, sales tax and other corporate law assignments;
f) undertaking due diligences for clients/ banks/ PE players for take
over, PE deals, start up funding etc;
h) Vetting and filing Company law forms ;
i) various types of certification work;
j) bank audits, government audits, concurrent audits, stock audits etc;
k) Internal audits of clients;
l) preparing TAR and filing the same on line:
Among all the above works , there are only private audits such as
statutory audits, TAR and internal audits, which has some time
flexibility and in most of other professional assignments changing
time schedule depends on the schedule of bankers, income tax, sales
tax, service tax, courts and other officials .
So out of his/ her professional schedule, some time is allocated for
each activity so that there is no loss to the client due to non timely
delivery by CA/ no loss of client to other CA, no loss of client to
other professionals etc and work of statutory audits, TAR and internal
audits are done in the non office time working i.e. say from 5 pm to 8
pm or a time at which bankers, authorities and government officials
does not meet
Moreover all CA in their daily schedule are some times over busy and
some time less busy, and accordingly the relatively less busy time is
used for TAR, statutory audits and internal audits etc.
Due to delay in notifying the TAR by huge delay of 128 days for
unjustified and unexplained reasons, CA’s could not use their
allocated / surplus time of these first 128 days and this has already
gone wasted, which in trun is not only individual wastage but national
wastage, and this loss of time is irrecoverable without any gain to
any section of the society;
- And now upon notifying TAR on 7-8-15 to complete all TARs
of all clients (say example 20 for each CA), during 25+30 i.e. 55 days
till 30.9.2015, How it is a reasonable time could any court explain
and justify with reasoning.
- Due to abnormal delay on the part of Income Tax Department
, the assigned work of TAR is required to be completed in 55 days
against available 180 days i.e. in around 30.55% time i.e. even less
than pass division time.
- The only way to make an effort to complete TAR work for all
clients in around 30.55% time is making C.A. ‘s of the country to :-
a) Let go other professional assignments of sales tax, financial
management, consultation , due diligence, preparing and presenting
income tax cases, corporate law work to other professions;
b) Sacrifice their morning walk / yoga / exercise schedule ;
c) Family schedule including that of helping children in their
exam preparation;
d) Sacrificing all Sundays, festivals and other holidays including EID;
e) Compromising with health by sitting late night in office which
in turn costs a lot and is also a harassment of CA staff in general
and female staff in particular;
f) Taking lot of tension, mental agony and pain to complete the
TAR work for all clients as per overstretched and unjustified and
illogical reduced time due to delay/ fault, mistake of income tax
department;
g) Wasting time, money and resources in going to courts with the
request for justice;
This can be evident from the number of TAR’s filled on 25th to 27th
Sep, 15 , which were otherwise holiday period and I understand during
these three days judges, income tax officials and government officials
would not have even devoted their 10% time to complete a little part
of their long pending official duties, due to which there may be
national loss going on.
Since CA’ s are the main machinery of the country for collection of
taxes and major contributors for national tax collection by
undertaking TAR, they should not be harassed and victimized in
personal and professional capacity for the sake of nothing.
Today, if cases for years are pending in courts, can we expect from
entire judiciary system to start coming to courts from 7 am to 10 pm
and first complete only pending cases , keeping aside all other
scheduled government, official , personal and family works till
completion of all cases , whereas pendency is there for last more than
20-30 years , till completion of all pendency even by working on
Sundays
Today, various cases are pending with income tax department and even
release of books, documents and other items are pending with income
tax department. Can entire department is expected to start working
from office from 7 am to 10 pm , for first completing the same and
then looking into the next years assessments and performing other
official duties . And if this happens, I understand all these will
also be having reasonable good time for completing their pending
works.
But , upon reading the same, any body will thingh that it is not
possible by any stretch of imagination and it will logjam the entire
working of courts or income tax department . Sir, similar is the
position of CA professionals and the same is required to be understood
alongwith applying mind while deciding the case for extending TAR
date.
SHOULD BE REQUEST FROM C.A.’s TO COURTS AND GOVERNMENT
1. TAR date to be extended till 31.3.16, so that they can use
their less busy time or say rather residuary time to complete the TAR
work for all clients , as due to the mistake of income tax department
their less busy time of first 128 days has gone wasted;
2. If TAR date extended for 1-2 months, it will spoil their
national festival Diwali.
3. For irrevocable loss of less busy time of first 128 days,
they should be paid fee at least equal to 25% of fees charged from TAR
clients, from coffers of government to partly compensate their
irrevocable loss.
4. C.A. should be made majority and decision making members in
the committee finalizing systems, software orders , budget and all
other formalities for notifying TAR for next years alongwith members
of income tax department (as minority members of that committee) so
that all next years TAR forms can be notified well in time . Mere
observation / instruction to CBDT to write reasons for delay in
notifying TAR for next years does not give any justice to CA’s or
assessee nor it serve any purpose rather it is a new liberal way to
indirectly confirm to CBDT that if they delay, they will only be
responsible for noting the reasons and with this they can continue to
harass the assessee’s, CA and general public alongwith causing
irrecoverable loss to CA’s, assesses and general public.
5. A detailed and critical assessment be made for the entire
period from budget date till 7.8.2015 (alongwith taking into account
the number of persons employed by that department for that work) that
how a huge time has been spent to notify TAR and reasonability of our
time of 55 days for completing all TAR assignments with other
pressings work , can only be judged upon comparison and not at all in
isolation because if you have to judge one, without comparing to
other, it may be much more for one and nothing for other.
2. Details of irrecoverable losses to Assessees due to delay in
notification of forms by 128 days by department, for the sake of
nothing.
As far as , Deposit of Tax is concerned , any assessee is first to
earn from business by devoting his time to business and then earn. Out
of that earning , he has to give some share in the shape of taxes , so
that the country and all government offices and machinery can run and
position of law and other can be maintained including that of feeding
from that taxes to defence, healthcare and education services. For
deposit of taxes and related returns, it is the duty of the concerned
tax officials to prescribe forms well in time and make systems ,
assessee friendly , well in time , so that , while depositing the tax
and related returns including TAR, he should be given reasonable time
and his business should not be affected. For depositing any returns
and TAR etc, he should feel relaxed and not worried and harassed from
all sides i.e. mentally, physically and financially .
If concerned tax collection department has delayed / failed in its
duties, its damage (either direct or indirect) and penalty should in
no way , be imposed to assesses , which has no default at all in this
delay or mistake or failure of department.
On the one hand our government and Hon,ble PMO is offering red carpet
for bringing industry and business to the country by offering special
incentives and facilities as if such business will come to india,
Government tax collections will increase substantially and on the
other hand a small unit / department of same government is harassing
the millions of assesses, who are already doing business and with
whose taxes the entire government including that small department (as
compared to government) is functioning. Here most important and
shameful fact is that that these millions of assesses are getting
harassed by not giving them proper and due time for filing their TAR
and all burden and penalty of delay / failure of collection department
is being put up on assesses without any fault of assesses. Is this
justice and what will happen to the reputation of country among
foreign investors and other countries, if this comes to their
knowledge?
Due to all this , the direct sufferers are C.A.’s of the country and ,
they have no other option except for increasing fee for TAR , as due
to failure of timely notifying the TAR, they have lost less busy time
of their first 128 days.
Now assesses has to pay extra fee to accountants and chartered
accountants, as these accountants and chartered accountants are trying
to complete all TAR assignments in around 30.50% of eligible time by
sacrificing their personal , family and professional life, as they are
working for 14-16 hours by leaving all other assignments from 7.8.15
to till now.
Today, if cases for years are pending in courts, can we expect from
entire judiciary system to start coming to courts from 7 am to 10 pm
and first complete only pending cases , keeping aside all other
scheduled government, official , personal and family works till
completion of all cases , whereas pendency is there for last more than
20-30 years , till completion of all pendency even by working on
Sundays
Today, various cases are pending with income tax department and even
release of books, documents and other items are pending with income
tax department. Can entire department is expected to start working
from office from 7 am to 10 pm , for first completing the same and
then looking into the next years assessments and performing other
official duties . And if this happens, I understand all these will
also be having reasonable good time for completing their pending
works.
But , upon reading the same, any body will thingh that it is not
possible by any stretch of imagination and it will logjam the entire
working of courts or income tax department . Sir, similar is the
position of CA professionals and the same is required to be understood
alongwith applying mind while deciding the case for extending TAR
date.
SHOULD BE REQUEST FROM ASSESSEES AND VARIOUS BUSINESS ORGANISATIONS/
TRADE FORUMS TO COURTS AND GOVERNMENT
a) TAR date to be extended till 31.3.16, so that C.A. can use
their less busy time or say rather residuary time to complete the TAR
work for all clients , as due to the mistake of income tax department
their less busy time of first 128 days has gone wasted, and with this
C.A. will not charge extra from assesses or will charge reduced extra
fee;If TAR date extended for 1-2 months, it will spoil their national
festival Diwali.
b) All excess fee paid to C.A. by assesses for TAR, should be
refunded from coffers of government /that income tax unit to partly
compensate their irrevocable loss.
c) Representatives from business community should also be
members of decision making committee finalizing systems, software
orders , budget and all other formalities for notifying TAR for next
years alongwith members of C.A. and income tax department so that all
next year TAR forms can be notified well in time . Mere observation /
instruction to CBDT to write reasons for delay in notifying TAR for
next years does not give any justice to CA’s or assessee nor it serve
any purpose rather it is a new liberal way to indirectly confirm to
CBDT that if they delay, they will only be responsible for noting the
reasons and with this they can continue to harass the assessee’s, CA
and general public alongwith causing irrecoverable loss to CA’s,
assesses and general public.
3. Details of irrecoverable losses to General Public at large
due to delay in notification of forms by 128 days by department, for
the sake of nothing.
Due to reduced time for completing TAR assignments by 69.50% , CA are
neither able to give time to their personal life, family and children
nor able to give time for various other important professional
assignments .
Due to this general public at large is also getting harassed , and the
root cause of the same is failure of income tax department in timely
notifying the TAR and in this there is no mistake or fault of CA’s or
assessee in general.
4. Irrecoverable losses to Government and tax recovery at large
due to delay in notification of forms by 128 days by department, for
the sake of nothing.
As explained above, C.A. are working day and night almost 14-16 hours
a day to complete the TAR assignments of all clients and due to this
work pressure getting increased by more than three times, (i.e. since
there is reduction in available time by 69.50% i.e. 128 days from
total of 180 days), the chances of error also increases, which in turn
is national loss or loss in tax collection.
And more importantly, as per past trend and working of department, all
cases for relevant period for which TAR date is to be extended, will
come up for scrutiny only next years, wherein cases are selected by
department through computer system, online, (i.e. job of few minutes)
and in case of delay in deposit of tax, assessee is liable to pay
interest. So with the extension of TAR date to 31.3.16, there is no
financials or procedural loss to revenue/ government, but justice to
general public, CA’s and assesses an indirect message to concerned
department who failed to complete its duties in reasonable time, for
the sake of nothing.
--
CA Ramachandran Mahadevan,M.Com.,F.C.A.,
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