President's Desk

President’s Message | October 2019

16/10/2019 Comments Off on President’s Message | October 2019

Dear Professional friends,

I’m happy to write this month message to my professional friends. The month October marks season of festival with mark of grand Diwali and my happy wishes to all the professional friends for a happy and prosperous Diwali ahead. With extension coming right in time, it allows members to rejoice the time at the festival. The grandeur of Diwali is not just lights but the symbolic principles which lie before us are the positive vibrant of light over darkness. Darkness symbolises an uninformed mind while light, an informed mind. These festive asserts the journey towards knowledge, and from there emanates a strength to avail a bigger challenge.

News Roundup

Goods and Service Tax

Due date for filing Annual return and Reconciliation Statement for FY 17-18 has been extended from 30th September 2019 to November 2019. Renting of Motor vehicles by registered taxpayers other than body corporates to body corporates is brought under RCM.  Also transfer of copyright rights by authors of original literary works to publishers is brought under RCM.

GST Council in its 37th meeting held at Goa on 20th September 2019 has taken few key decisions, they are:

  • Filing of Annual return by composition dealers in form GSTR9A has been exempted for FY 17-18 & 18-19.
  • Filing of Annual return by normal dealers in form GSTR9 with aggregate turnover up to Rs. 2 Crores has been made optional for FY 17-18 & 18-19. For others dealers with aggregate turnover of Rs. 2 Crores onwards, it is mandatory to file both GSTR9 and Reconciliation statement in GSTR9C by 30th November 2019 for FY 17-18.
  • Implementation of New return filing is further deferred from October 2019 to April 2020.

Corporate and Business Law

In a recent circular, MCA extended the due date for filing form BEN-2 to 31 Dec 2019. The extension was provided on account of certain new aspects which require further examination and clarification.  Further, on account of various representations the due date for filing DIR-3 KYC was also extended to 14 October 2019.

Keeping in mind the above due date extensions the MCA has clearly sent out a message to all the corporates to plan their annual filings in MCA21 portal in the month of October and November. To avoid last minute rush and system congestion on the portal MCA requested the stakeholders not to postpone the filings to last days. Also, it is to be appreciated that during this period Corporate Seva Kendra/ Help desks would give priority to e-filing/answering queries of companies for filing financial statements and annual returns. This kind of approach from the Government would help the professionals complete the required compliances in time and reduce the instances of due date extensions.

MCA, through a notification dated 5th September, 2019, issued NFRA (Amendment) Rules, 2019. Through this Amendment Rules:

  • The last date for filling Annual Return by the auditor (as covered under NFRA Rules, 2018) has been extended from 30th April every year to 30th November every year.
  • Form NFRA-2 which is the format for filling Annual Return by the auditor has been newly introduced, which was not specified under the NFRA Rules, 2018.

Income Tax

  • CBDT has extended the due date for filing the income tax return and audit reports to 31st October 2019 for the returns which were due to be filed on or before 30th September 2019.
  • E-assessment Scheme 2019 has been notified by the Central Government on 12th September 2019 for facesless and paperless assessments.
  • Corporate tax rates for domestic companies reduced to 25.17% for Financial Year 2019?20, subject to the condition that such companies do not avail any specified incentives or exemptions.
  • Manufacturing companies set up after 1st October 2019 to get an option to pay tax at the rate of 15% [effective rate 17.17%]. Such companies are exempt from MAT.
  • CBDT has provided relief on applicability enhanced surcharge [introduced by Finance Act 2019 (2)] for certain specified capital gains/tax payers.

Representation

We have represented to the GST council through a representation regarding manner of taxability of services provided by an office of an organisation in one State to the office of that organisation in another State.

Upcoming Programs

We have planned following programs in the month of October 2019

  • Workshop on Income Tax E-Assessment
  • Workshop on Basics of Transfer Pricing

Our program, eloquent professional is running successfully and has received accolades from members participating in it. We have stalwarts from our profession, who are guiding the participants in various dimensions and magnitude. I request members to take benefit of such programs and come out with improvements and suggestion, if any.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that”

This quote from Martin Luther King drew my attention because it is that knowledge which we consider light that can eradicate darkness of ignorance and especially for a profession like ours, whose responsibility towards society is measured with the knowledge we prowess and possess.  It is only these times that we become vulnerable to disruptions, and eminence of knowledge eradicates such darkness.

Yours Sincerely,

CA. Chandrashekara Shetty,

President