Chartered Accountants have written to the Finance Ministry about a glitch in uploading the quarterly TDS statement in Form 24Q for the quarter ended March 31.

In a letter to the Central Board of Direct Taxes, the Bombay Chartered Accountants’ Society has asked that the form be amended so that employers can put in the correct date instead of March 31.

Deadline for TDS

Form 24Q deals with tax deducted at source (TDS) by employers from salaries. Significantly, the government has already extended the deadline for TDS for the March quarter to July 31.

With the lockdown in force from March 24, many companies were unable to credit salaries and deduct tax before the March 31 deadline and paid it only in June. Now, while filing returns, the BCAS has found that the software does not accept the June date but only accepts dates till March 31.

A backdated entry would attract demand for interest for delay in deposit of TDS, it has pointed out in the letter, adding that it will also be factually incorrect and could lead to unnecessary litigation.

“Many employers are facing difficulty in compiling and uploading the quarterly TDS statement in Form 24Q,” said BCAS in its letter, adding that in spite of complying with the provisions of section 192 and paying the TDS to the government,they are unable to upload the quarterly TDS statement.

The utility is not accepting the date since it is after March 31, 2020,” it has further pointed out.

“Due to a glitch in programming of the TDS utility, a genuine taxpayer will be put to hardship and unnecessarily dragged into litigation which can be easily avoided,” said BCAS.

Further, even in the normal course, when the salary for March is generally paid in April by most employers, the correct date of ‘paid/credit date and deduction date’ would be the date of April and not March 31, it has pointed out.

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