Gujarat HC admits writ against new return form::
ADMITTING the writ petition challenging the newly-introduced income-tax return forms as being arbitrary and unreasonable, the Gujarat High Court has issued notice to the Union of India. The bench comprising Chief Justice Y R Meena and Justice Akil Kureshi has also directed the income-tax department to file information before Monday regarding the number of categorywise tax returns filed in Gujarat till date, in comparison to the total returns similarly filed last year.
The public interest petition jointly filed by the All Gujarat Federation of Tax Consultants, Income Tax Bar Association, Income Tax Appellate Tribunal Bar Association and Tax Advocates Association was represented by senior advocates and past presidents of the Petitioner Associations, K H Kaji and Mukesh M Patel. The petition contended that various parts of the said forms were in conflict with the provisions of the Act and the Rules. The petitioners also argued that the forms prescribed require voluminous details, which are virtually impossible to be filled in the returns and require mutilating, splitting and reconstructing assessee’s accounts, also require compilation of complex and minute details after the year is over and further require calling of details from third parties before filing the return.
“The new forms have been prescribed by notification on and from 14-5-2007, i.e. nearly 6 weeks after the end of the accounting year. Until early July, 2007, these forms were not available from the Income Tax Offices and it is only since the last few days that the software for electronic filing of the new tax returns has been put up on the website of the Income-tax Department,” the petitioners contended.
Unlike the earlier ‘Saral’, the new tax returns cannot be filled in by common taxpayers without engaging the services of tax practitioners and involving considerable resources of time, energy and money, say the petitioners. It has been argued that under instruction 12 of the new tax returns, all items must be filled in the manner indicated, otherwise the return may be liable to be held defective or even invalid. This creates serious threat for a taxpayer, who would be required to face dire consequences if he does not comply strictly with the furnishing of several items of virtually impossible to comply information and data. It would indeed be ironical if a taxpayer, who is truly and honestly declaring his total income, comes to be penalised on account of his tax return being treated as defective or invalid under such circumstances, the petitioners have contended.
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