Drafts of tax accounting standard on construction contracts, government grants issued

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has invited comments and suggestions from stakeholders on the proposed tax accounting standards (TAS) on construction contracts and government grants. The drafts of the TAS on these two issues were released today.

A committee constituted by the CBDT in December last to study the harmonisation of the accounting standards issued by the CA institute with the direct tax laws in India has recommended the draft of these two TAS. The drafts of the other TAS would be issued in due course, the CBDT has said. The CBDT committee, comprising departmental officers and professionals, had submitted its interim report in August. This committee has also been tasked to suggest appropriate amendments to the income tax law in view of transition to IFRS (IND AS) regime. The interim report has recommended that accounting standards notified under the income tax law should be made applicable only to the computation of taxable income and a taxpayer should not be required to maintain books of account on the basis of accounting standards notified under the income tax law.

As two different sets of accounting standards may cause confusion for taxpayers and other stakeholders, the committee has suggested that the accounting standards notified under the Income Tax Act should be termed as “tax accounting standards”. So far, under the income tax law only two accounting standards relating to disclosure of accounting policies and disclosure of prior period and extraordinary items and changes in accounting policies have been notified.

> krsrivats@thehindu.co.in

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