The income tax audit report deadline has been extended to October 7, 2024 for all taxpayers

Last date for income tax audit report: Deadline for tax audit report extended

The deadline to submit the income tax audit report has been extended to October 7, 2024 for those taxpayers who are required by law to conduct an income tax audit of their accounts and submit the audit report on or before September 30, 2024. The report is required to be submitted online on the e-filing ITR portal. This extension is important as the penalty for submitting a tax audit report after the deadline is Rs 1.5 lakh or 0.5% of total sales, whichever is lower.

“Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has decided to extend the specified date for filing of various reports of audit for the Previous Year 2023-24, which was 30th September, 2024 in the case of assessees referred in clause (a) of Explanation 2 to sub-section (1) of section 139 of the Act, to 07thOctober 2024,” said the Income Tax Department in a circular released on September 29, 2024.

For which taxpayers is the tax audit report submission deadline extended?

In the circular, CBDT has specifically mentioned the category of taxpayers for whom the deadline has been extended to October 7, 2024.

Chartered accountant Ashish Niraj, Partner, A S N & Company Chartered Accountants, says:
“As per this circular all assessees, who are required to get tax audit done – including individuals, companies and other assessees whose ITRs are required to be filed by 31st October of the assessment year – and who were required to submit a tax audit report by 30th September can upload the tax audit report by 7th October, 2024, now.” he says.

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You Might Also Like:Will lot of taxpayers miss the tax audit report deadline due to this glitch on the ITR e-filing portal?
Chartered accountant Deepak Chopra, Chairman, Direct Tax Committee, Karnataka State Chartered Accountants Association (KSCAA) confirms to ET Wealth Online that, “The Income Tax audit report submission deadline has been extended to October 7, 2024 for ALL taxpayers who were liable to submit their tax audit report by September 30, 2024.”

Why was the tax audit report submission deadline extended?

In the circular dated September 29, 2024 CBDT has said: “On consideration of difficulties faced by the taxpayers and other stakeholders in electronic filing of various reports of audit under the provisions of the Income-tax Act,1961 (Act), the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), in exercise of its powers under Section 119 of the Act, extends the specified date of furnishing of report of audit…..”

Economic Times Wealth Online reported on September 19, 2024 that many taxpayers were experiencing sluggishness in the working of the ITR e-filing portal and were unable to upload tax audit reports on it.

Expert’s reaction to tax audit deadline extension to October 7, 2024

Chartered accountant Deepak Chopra, Chairman of the Direct Tax Committee of the Karnataka State Chartered Accountants Association (KSCAA) says:
“We welcome the decision by the CBDT to extend the specified date for filing various audit reports for the Previous Year 2023-24 from 30th September to 7th October 2024. This extension offers much-needed relief to taxpayers, especially in light of the technical challenges faced on the income tax portal. However, I would like to urge taxpayers and professionals alike not to wait until the last moment to complete their filings. Delaying submissions tends to overwhelm the system closer to the due date, adding undue stress to both assessees and the portal's infrastructure.”

Mihir Tanna, Associate Director- direct tax, S.K Patodia & Associates LLP, says:
“As the tax website was not working properly for the last so many days. We were finding it difficult to file tax audits reports and other forms like form 10B/10BB, 29B, etc, whose due date was September 30, 2024. Now it is expected that the due date of ITR will also be extended to November 7, 2024 or a later date. We hope our Hon'ble FM extends the ITR date for more than 7 days considering that the festival of Diwali is in the 1st week of November.”

Chartered accountant Ashish Niraj, Partner, A S N & Company:
“This 7 days extension for submission of tax audit report will also save a penalty of Rs 1.5 lakh or 0.5% of total sales, whichever is lower for those taxpayers who were likely to miss the September 30, 2024 deadline for Tax Audit Report submission due to portal glitches or any other reasons. Although the tax audit report submission date was extended just before the deadline, it will give some relief to professionals like us. Some clients provide explanations sought by chartered accountants on Tax Audit related queries very late. As a result professionals face a lot of pressure in the last few days. etc.”