The system of Tax Audit u/s 44AB has changed drastically in recent time. Particularly the change of manual filling to non filling and now from non filling to e filling has raised lot of questions and confusions in mind of Accountants. The Some of many concerns are :
Whether Tax Audit Report u/s 44AB already filed can be Revised?
If Yes, Whether a Revised Audit Report can be revised again?
What is manner & procedure of Revising Tax Audit Report?
Whether E filling utility provided by CBDT provides facility for Revision?
What is the time limit prescribed for Revision of Tax Audit Report?
To find out the answers to these question, I referred the Guidance Note on Tax Audit under section 44AB of Income Tax Act-1961 issued by direct Tax committee of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (2014 edition). The under mentioned extract is taken from page No.78 of such Guidance Note.
The Institute and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs have affirmed this position. In case of revision, the audit report should be given in the manner as required by the Institute in SA-560 (Revised), Subsequent Events. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs had also clarified that accounts can be revised to comply with technical requirements.
It may be pointed out that report under section 44AB should not normally be revised. However, sometimes a member may be required to revise his tax audit report on grounds such as:
(i) revision of accounts of a company after its adoption in annual general meeting.
(ii) change of law e.g., retrospective amendment.
(iii) change in interpretation, e.g. CBDT Circular, judgements, etc.
(iv) others i.e software error/ error in uploading etc.(taken from Department Website)
In case where a member is called upon to report on the revised accounts, then he must mention in the revised report that the said report is a revised report and a reference should be made to the earlier report also. In the revised report, reasons for revising the report should also be mentioned.
After reading the above said paragraph from Guidance Note of Tax Audit u/s 44AB of Income Tax Act-1961, it is very clear that Tax Audit report should not be normally revised. However, it can be revised only to met some technical requirements.
Further, the utility provided by CBDT for filling/ uploading of TAX Audit report further added to our confusion, where one more reason under heading “OTHERS” has been added under uploading TAB. When we tick on other, it will ask for further description/details. But here You can write anything & upload the same to department website.
Beside that, the guidance note issued by ICAI also requires members to mention the fact of revision suitably in his report, whereas the utility provided by department provides no adequate space /tab for mentioning such a fact of Revised report. Further, the Institute further requires from members the reasons for such revision but no space is provided for mentioning such reason in the utility provided
Further, We require some illustrative list of reasons due to which a member can revise his tax Audit report by mentioning what can be software/uploading error. We also require some specimen of revised Audit reports due to all reasons allowed so that a uniform practice of revising Tax Audit reports can be followed.
The guidance Note & law also did not specified anywhere the period up to which revision can be done.
In my opinion, there must be some time limit for revision of Tax Audit Report.
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