E-filing portal of Income Tax Deptt. (CBDT) shall validate UDIN generated from ICAI portal, during uploading of Tax Audit Reports (TAR), etc. with effect from 27/11/2020. Further, CAs who are unable to generate UDIN will be allowed 15 days time to do so after submission of the TAR.
In other words, such Tax Audit Reports/ Certificates/ Forms shall be treated as valid only if their UDINs have been duly subjected to online validation by the E-filing Portal of Income Tax Deptt with reference to UDIN database of ICAI portal.
To avoid any validation errors, it is advisable to ensure that correct Form Number is selected from the drop-down panel of UDIN Portal while generating UDIN and the same form number is selected at e-filing Portal also, while updating UDIN during uploading of Reports.
MoF, GOI Press Release dt. 26/11/2020 : CBDT to validate UDIN during uploading of Tax Audit Reports (TAR)
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, in its gazette notification dated 02/08/2019, had made generation of UDIN from ICAI website http://www.icai.org mandatory for every kind of certificate/ tax audit report and other attests made by their members as required by various regulators. This was introduced to curb fake certifications by non CAs misrepresenting themselves as Chartered Accountants.
In line with the ongoing initiatives of the Income Tax Department for integrating with other Government agencies and bodies, Income-tax e-filing portal has completed its integration with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) portal for validation of Unique Document Identification Number (UDIN) generated from ICAI portal by the Chartered Accountants for documents certified/ attested by them.
It may be noted that, in consonance with the above requirement, Income-tax e-filing portal had already factored mandatory quoting of UDIN with effect from 27/04/2020 for documents certified/ attested in compliance with the Income-tax Act, 1961 by a Chartered Accountant. With this system level integration, UDIN provided for the audit reports/ certificates submitted by the Chartered Accountants in the e-filing portal shall be validated online with the ICAI. This will help in weeding out fake or incorrect Tax Audit Reports not duly authenticated with the ICAI.
If for any reason, a Chartered Accountant was not able to generate UDIN before submission of audit report/ certificate, the Income-tax e-filing portal permits such submission, subject to the Chartered Accountant updating the UDIN generated for the form within 15 calendar days from the date of form submission in the Income-tax e-filing portal. If the UDIN for the audit report/ certificate is not updated within the 15 days provided for the same, such audit report/ certificate uploaded shall be treated as invalid submission.
Mandatory validation of UDIN in all IT Forms; ICAI Advisory
ICAI has issued Advisory to the Members for Mandatory validation of UDIN in all Income Tax (IT) Forms, in line with the prescribed requirements/ procedure.
ICAI Announcement dt. 19/12/2020 : Mandatory validation of UDIN in all Income Tax Forms
CBDT is validating Unique Document Identification Number (UDIN) generated from ICAI portal while uploading of Tax Audit and other Income Tax Reports as per their Press release .
Tax Audit Reports/ Forms uploaded on e-filing portal from 27/11/2020 and onwards.
The Tax Reports/ Forms will be treated valid only if their UDINs have been validated by CBDT E-filing Portal. For doing so, CAs will have a buffer time of 15 days to update their UDIN at e-filing portal in addition to providing the same instantly.
UDIN is being validated by e-filing portal online with UDIN Portal of ICAI on three parameters:
Membership No of Member (MRN)
UDIN
Income Tax Form Number
Therefore, the Form number selected at the UDIN Portal while generating UDIN, same form number has to be selected at e-filing Portal also while updating UDIN at the time of uploading Reports or within 15 days thereafter. Members are, therefore, requested to ensure that relevant Form Number is selected from the drop-down panel of UDIN Portal. For ready reference, the list of IT online forms available in the Drop Down at UDIN Portal under the category GST and Tax Audit can be Viewed Here .
Tax Audit Reports/ Forms uploaded on e-filing portal between 27/04/2020 and 26/11/2020
CBDT has come out with this functionality of mentioning UDIN in IT Forms at e-filing portal from 27/04/2020 onwards. It is being observed that some members though might have generated UDIN for IT Forms well in time but some-how missed to update the same on e-filing portal.
On the persuasion of ICAI, CBDT has given a one-time relaxation by allowing them to update UDINs for forms latest by 31/12/2020 for treating these forms as valid. In view of the same, such members are requested to update the UDINs on the e-filing Portal at the earliest but not later than 31/12/2020 for all such IT Forms which have been uploaded by them from 27/04/2020 onwards till 26/11/2020. For facilitation of Members the steps and screenshots of e-filing portal involved for updating UDIN is available. Members may kindly note that UDIN is treated as consumed when it is accepted by the Taxpayer. Once the UDIN is updated by the member, e-filing portal automatically validates it and shows error message if it is not validated successfully.
The members may kindly once again note that now the Form/ Tax Audit Report for which no valid UDIN has been updated within the permissible time limit of 15 days will be treated as invalid. Considering the fact that now IT Form will be treated as Valid by e-filing only if the validation of UDIN is done and Taxpayer has accepted the form, it is recommended that members should plan the filing of the Tax Audit Reports without waiting for the last date to avoid any last-minute hassles.
For detailed FAQs please click here
For any clarification, please write us at udin@icai.in
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UDIN is mandatory for which type of Certificates from 01/02/2019?
I suggest to integrate UDIN feature in various software available for preparing Tax Audit reports (TAR), so that the same can be automatically generated at the time of filling TAR.
Tax Audit Reports/ Forms uploaded on e-filing portal between 27th April,2020 and 26th November, 2020
As per ICAI communication, the CBDT has come out with this functionality of mentioning UDIN in IT Forms at e-filing portal from 27th April,2020 onwards. It is being observed that some members though might have generated UDIN for IT Forms well in time but some-how missed to update the same on e-filing portal.
On the persuasion of ICAI, CBDT has given a one-time relaxation by allowing them to update UDINs for forms latest by 31st December, 2020 for treating these forms as valid. In view of the same, such members are requested to update the UDINs on the e-filing Portal at the earliest but not later than 31st December, 2020 for all such IT Forms which have been uploaded by them from 27th April, 2020 onwards till 26th November, 2020.
The members may kindly once again note that now the Form / Tax Audit Report for which no valid UDIN has been updated within the permissible time limit of 15 days will be treated as invalid. Considering the fact that now IT Form will be treated as Valid by e-filing only if the validation of UDIN is done and Taxpayer has accepted the form, it is recommended that members should plan the filing of the Tax Audit Reports without waiting for the last date to avoid any last-minute hassles.