The Revenue Department (DoR) under the Union Finance Ministry on Monday said that GST turnover display in Form 26AS will not result in extra compliance for assessees.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) in September issued an order that led to the display of information on GST returns on income tax statement form called Form 26AS. The form is an annual consolidated income tax credit statement. It helps the taxpayer to ascertain the tax deducted and the advance tax paid during the year and match it with the tax deposited as per the tax department’s records.
Various users have claimed on social media that the taxpayer will be required to reconcile the GST turnover uploaded in Form 26AS with the turnover shown by him in the income tax return and this would increase the compliance burden of the taxpayers. “Such concerns expressed in social media are not based on facts, and hence, these are misleading and skewed,” the DoR said.
However, the department acknowledged that there may be some differences in GSTR-3Bs filed and the GST shown in Form 26AS. But it can’t be the case that a person who shows turnover in crores of rupees in GST doesn’t pay a single rupee of income tax, it said. There are quite a few cases like these that have been detected through data analytics, it aded.
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‘Honouring the honest’
It mentioned that that the notified income tax return for the current AY 2020-21 already requires reporting of GST outward supplies in the Schedule GST. Therefore, the information displayed in Form 26AS would provide ease of compliance to taxpayers in filling the Schedule GST. “There would be no change in the reporting requirement with the display of information of GST turnover in Form 26AS because honest taxpayers are already furnishing GST returns and income tax return and reporting their turnover correctly,” the DoR said.
Also, the display of information should be seen as an important step in the direction of “Transparent Taxation - Honouring the Honest,” the department said.
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