NEW
RETURN FORMS FOR ASSESSMENT YEAR 2009-10 – MATTERS CONNECTED THERETO
CIRCULAR NO. 03 / 2009, DATED
21-5-2009
The
Central Board of Direct Taxes have, vide notification S.O. No.866 (E) dated 27th,
March, notified the following new forms for Assessment Year 2009-10 :-
(i) ITR-1 return
of income for individuals having income from salary/ pension/ family pension
and not having any other income except income by way of interest chargeable to
income-tax under the head Income from other sources;
(ii)
ITR-2 return of income for Individuals and Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs) not
having any income under the head Profits or gains of business or profession;
(iii)
ITR-3 return of income for Individuals and HUFs being partners in firms and not
carrying out business or profession under any proprietorship;
(iv)
ITR-4 return of income for individual and HUFs having proprietory business or
profession;
(v)
ITR-5 combined form for return of income and fringe benefits for Firms/
Association of Persons / Body of Individuals;
(vi)
ITR-6 combined form for return of income and fringe benefits for companies
(other than companies claiming exemption under section 11;
(vii)
ITR-7 combined form for return of income and fringe benefits for persons
including companies required to furnish return under section 139(4A) or section
139(4B) or section 139(4C) or section 139(4D);
(viii)
ITR-8 stand alone form for return of fringe benefits for persons who are not
required to furnish return of income but are required to furnish return of
fringe benefits.
The above return forms are available at http//www.incometaxindia.gov.in.
2. Rule 12
of the Income Tax Rules, 1962 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the said rule’)
provides for the form and the manner in which the income tax return is required
to be furnished.
3. Sub-rule (3) of the said rule
provides that return of income/ fringe benefits can be furnished in any of the
following manners:-
(i) furnishing the return in a paper form;
(ii)
furnishing the return
electronically under digital signature;
(iii) transmitting the data in the return
electronically and thereafter submitting the verification of the return in Form
ITR-V;
(iv) furnishing
a bar-coded return in a paper form.
4. Sub-rule
(5) of the said rule provides that the return of income/ fringe benefits
for assessment year 2008-09 or any earlier assessment years shall be furnished
in the appropriate form as applicable in that assessment year.
5 In exercise of the powers conferred
by section 139D of the Income Tax Act,1961 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the
Act’), ( read with clause (eebb) of sub-section (2) of section 295 of the
Act, sub-rule (3) of the said rule provides that-
(a) it shall be mandatory for the firms to
whom provisions of section 44AB are applicable and for the companies (other
than the companies claiming exemption under section 11) to furnish the return
of income/ fringe benefits electronically in the manner mentioned at (ii) or
(iii) of paragraph 3;
(b) the return of income/ fringe benefits in
Form ITR-7 by charitable/ religious trusts, political parties and other
non-profit is to be furnished in the paper form only; and
(c) all other taxpayers have the option to
furnish the return of income/ fringe benefits in any of the manner mentioned in
paragraph 3.
6. In exercise
of the powers conferred by section 139C of the Income Tax Act,1961 (hereinafter
referred to as ‘the Act’), read with clause (eeba) of sub-section (2) of
section 295 of the Act, sub-rule (2) of the said rule provides that the
returns required to be furnished in above mentioned Forms (except in ITR-7)
shall not be accompanied by any attachments/ annexures. Thus, taxpayers should
not enclose with these return forms any statement showing the computation of
income or tax, copies of balance-sheet, profit and loss account, TDS/ TCS
certificates, proof of payment of advance tax or self-assessment tax. However,
these documents shall have to be produced before the Assessing Officer on
demand by him. The Chief Commissioners of Income-tax/ Commissioners of
Income-tax must ensure that documents if any, annexed with these returns or
Form ITR-V are detached at the time of receiving these returns/ ITR-V and are
returned to the taxpayers immediately.
7. Following
clarifications are also issued in respect of certain issues arising from
furnishing the returns in the above mentioned forms:
(i) An assessee should obtain the
report of audit from an accountant under section 44AB of the Act on or before the
due date of the furnishing of the return and should fill out the relevant
columns of the return forms on the basis of such report. However, the report of
audit should not be attached with the return or furnished separately any time
before or after the due date. The assessee should retain the report with
himself. If called for by any income-tax authority during any proceeding under
the Act, it shall be incumbent upon the assessee to furnish/produce the same in
original. No penalty under section 271B shall be initiated or levied for not
furnishing the tax audit report on or before the due date. However, if the
audit report has not been obtained before the due date, provisions of section
271B shall continue to be attracted.
(ii) These returns are not to be
accompanied with any other document including any statutory form or report of
audit (other than the report under section 92E), which is otherwise required to
be furnished before the due date or along with the return for making any claim.
The provisions of the law shall be deemed to have been complied with in respect
of the requirement of the filing of the attachments or documents or reports
along with the return. No penalty shall be initiated/ levied for not furnishing
such documents if such documents were otherwise obtained before the specified
date, if any, provided in the statute. All these documents should be retained
by the taxpayers. If called for by any income-tax authority during any
proceeding under the Act, it shall be incumbent upon the assessee to
furnish/produce the same, in original.
(iii) The report as required under
section 92E of the Income-tax Act should not be furnished along with the
return. However, it should be separately furnished before the date specified in
rule 10E.
8. As
stated in paragraph 5 above, it is mandatory for a company and a firm liable to
audit under section 44AB of the Act to furnish the return electronically.
However, electronic filing is optional for other categories of tax-payers. The
e-Return has to be furnished at http://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in. Further,
it is advisable, though not mandatory, to use a digital signature for
electronically furnishing the return. If the return is
electronically furnished under a digital signature, the tax-payer is not
required to furnish the Form ITR-V with the Income-tax Department as a follow
up to the electronic transmitting of data in the return. Similarly, any return
which is digitally signed by the assessee and filed with an E-Return
Intermediary (ERI), who, in turn, submits the return to the Income Tax
Department under his digital signature, will also be deemed to have been filed
under a digital signature of the assessee and no Form ITR-V is required to be
submitted. In such cases, the date of electronic transmission of the data in
the return shall be the date of furnishing the return.
9. However, if the assessee does not use a
digital signature for electronically transmitting the data, he is required to
follow-up the electronic transmission of the data by submitting the Form ITR-V
with the Income-tax Department as verification of the electronic filing of the
return. In such a case, the date of transmitting the data electronically will
be the date of furnishing the return if the Form ITR-V is furnished within
thirty days after the date of transmitting the data electronically. In case,
Form ITR-V, is furnished after the above mentioned period, it will be deemed
that the return in respect of which the Form ITR-V has been filed was never
furnished and it shall be incumbent on the assessee to electronically
re-transmit the data and follow it up by submitting the new Form ITR-V within
thirty days.
10. Since the
Form ITR-V is bar-coded, assessee is advised not to fold the same and post it
in A4 size envelope. The assessee shall furnish the Form ITR-V to the
Income-tax Department by mailing it to “Income Tax Department – CPC, Post
Box No - 1, Electronic City Post Office, Bangalore - 560100, Karnataka”
within thirty days after the date of transmitting the data electronically. The
Post Box shall deliver all the Form ITR-V to the Centralized Processing Centre
(CPC) of the Income-tax Department in
11. All returns filed electronically shall be processed, on
priority basis, only at the Centralized Processing Centre of the Income-tax
Department in
12. Since no documents are required to be
furnished along with the return of income, the credit for Tax Deducted at
Source (TDS), Tax Collected at Source (TCS), advance tax and self assessment
tax (hereinafter collectively referred to as ‘pre-paid taxes’) shall be
allowed on the basis of information relating to pre-paid taxes furnished in the
relevant schedules of the return forms subject to matching with the information
provided by the deductor, collector and the banks. Therefore, tax payers are
advised to
ensure that the information relating to pre-paid taxes is complete in all
respect and correct. With a view to enabling the matching of information
relating to pre-paid taxes furnished by the tax payers, the Income-tax
Department has created a system of Unique Transaction Number (UTN) and Challan
Identification Number (CIN). Assesses must ensure that the deductor and the
collector have provided them with separate UTNs in respect of each TDS and TCS
transaction. Similarly, they must also ensure that the UTN for every TDS and
TCS claim in the return is correctly filled in. Similarly, they must ensure
that they correctly fill in the CIN in respect of payments of advance tax and
self-assessment tax. Further, no disallowance
of claim for pre-paid taxes shall be made by the Assessing Officer only on the
ground that the TDS/TCS certificates and challans have not been furnished along
with the return of income or Form ITR-V.
13. The
return of income in Form No. ITR-1 to Form No.ITR-8 for Assessment Year 2009-10
have been notified which require, amongst other, the quoting of the relevant
UTN for every TDS or TCS claim made by the assessee. Therefore, the credit for
any TDS or TCS claim will be allowed, amongst others, if the assessee quotes
the relevant UTN for every TDS and TCS claim and the said UTN matches with the
UTN in the database of the Income Tax Department. With a view to enabling the
processing of returns relating to financial year 2007-08 (Assessment Year
2008-09) and enabling the assessee to receive the UTN for TDS and TCS
transactions in the Financial Year 2008-09 (relevant for Assessment Year
2009-10), the following procedure will be followed: -
(a) National
Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) shall assign an UTN for every TDS and TCS
transaction record in Financial Year 2007-08 and 2008-09 reported in the
quarterly returns received by it.
(b) NSDL
will create a facility to e-mail the UTN file to the deductor if the e-mail
address of the deductor is available with them. In addition, they will also
create a facility for the deductor to download the UTN file.
(c) Upon
receipt of the UTN, the deductor will inform the UTN to the deductee. In cases
where the UTNs are available to the deductor before the issue of the TDS/TCS
certificate to the deductee, the deductor will indicate the UTNs on the
certificate. However, if the UTNs are not available to the deductor before the
issue of TDS/TCS certificate, the deductor shall, subsequently, send a
consolidated statement of all TDS/TCS transactions indicating the UTNs.
(d) NSDL
will also create a facility to allow independent viewing of the UTNs by the
deductee. As a result, even if the UTNs are not received by the deductee from the
deductor, they can be directly obtained from the NSDL database and quoted while
making claims of TDS and TCS in the return of income.
14. In the past, instances have come to the
notice of the Board that in spite of specific directions contained in the Instructions
for filling the return forms, the practice of accepting returns, along with
annexures is still continuing. Tax-payers have in the past also complained that
staff and officials in certain stations are refusing to accept returns which
are not accompanied with annexures. These practices are against the expressed
policy of the Government and are not in consonance with the legal provisions.
Therefore, it is emphasized that Chief Commissioners of Income Tax must ensure
strict compliance with the provisions of law. It may be reiterated that all
annexures accompanying the income tax return forms should be detached and
returned to the tax payers by the receiving official.
15. The contents of this circular are for
strict compliance by all officers and staff of the Income Tax Department. Any
violation by the officers and staff of Income Tax Department will be seriously
viewed.