LocalCircles, which hosts a community of over 30,000 startups on its platform, in a letter today to the Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Arun Jaitley sought an extension of April 25 deadline for companies (incorporated on or before December 31) to file e-form INC-22A — ACTIVE to June 1, 2019. Companies are required to file e-form to “establish their registered office and verification thereof,” said the instruction kit issued by the ministry for filing e-form and seen by Financial Express Online. The filing is allegedly another regulatory challenge following the controversial Angel Tax issue for startups.
The government in a gazette notification issued on February 21 had stated that a company incorporated on or before December 31, 2017, shall
need to file particulars of the company and its registered office via filling the e-form INC-22A — ACTIVE (Active Company Tagging Identities and Verification or before April 25, failing which the company will have to pay fine of Rs 10,000 for filing it.
The request for extension is triggered by requirements from the government that are seen as challenges for startups to fulfil including “Photograph of the registered office showing external building and inside office also showing therein at least one director/KMP who has affixed his/her digital signature to this form,” the document said.
This is because many startups operate out of shared office spaces such as co-working spaces or occupy a small area in a large commercial building and also often the director, in case of a growing startup with multiple offices, is not based out of the one mentioned in the filing.
“Most government-recognised startups operate out of shared spaces or have a small office in a large corporate building and its almost impossible for them to get a board put on the external building and take a geotagged picture,” Founder and Chairman at LocalCircles Sachin Taparia told Financial Express Online.
Since Ministry of Corporate Affairs already has their details like financial returns, annual filings, they should be exempted from filing form INC-22 ACTIVE or at least given an extension till June 1, 2019,” added Taparia.
Financial Express Online has seen the copy of the letter sent to Arun Jaitley.
