Government directs taxmen to dispose off applications related to TDS, TCS for FY20 by April 27

The government directed tax officials to dispose off applications filed by taxpayers or buyers or licence holders for lower or nil deduction of tax deducted at source (TDS)/tax collected at source (TCS) for FY20, by April 27, 2020.
“Due to outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, there is severe disruption in the normal working of almost all sectors… to mitigate the hardships of taxpayers, the CBDT has issued directions/clarifications,” the Board said in a statement on Saturday.

Officials have been directed to communicate approval or rejection of the certificate to the applicant via email, However, applicants have to send email intimation to the assessing officer about the pendency of issuance of such certificates, and must have “the required documents and evidences of filing their application in TRACES portal,” the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a notification.

The Board added that due the Coronavirus, the applications filed “may not be attended in a timely manner by the TDS-Assessing officers, which may cause hardship to the payees and buyers/licensees/lessees who have raised the invoice in FY20 but have not received the payment for the same till date,” it added.

In a separate notification, the government provided more relief to taxpayers as it extended the validity of forms 15H and 15G till June 30, which are used to avail exemption from deducting tax deducted at source (TDS) on interest income as the income falls below taxable threshold.

The directions come amid several measures announced by the finance ministry to support individuals and businesses impacted by Covid-19. The government had recently extended the deadline to file IT returns for FY 2018-19 to June 30, 2020. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had also cut interest rate to 9% from 18% on delayed deposit of TDS. Businesses with less than Rs 5-crore turnover would not be required to interest, late fee, or penalty while for bigger companies, late fee and penalty won’t be charged. However, the interest will be levied at a reduced rate of 9%.