The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has proposed amendments to the tax audit report for charitable trusts and institutions, which would require additional details from assessees in the form of status of registration under the Income Tax Act, compliance to conditions for application and registration status under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010, among others.
The draft notification has been put in the public domain and stakeholders have time till June 5 to submit their views. The proposed changes will extend the audit form to 8 pages from 3 pages earlier. The CBDT said it was revising the tax audit form “as the rule and form were notified long ago, there is a need to rationalise them to align with requirements of the present times”. The form was last revised 45 years ago.
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Prateek Agarwal, partner- audit & assurance at Nangia & Co LLP, said: “With the proposed changes in the tax audit report for charitable trusts, the responsibility of the auditors will increase significantly as there are various additional disclosure requirements in the annexure to Form 10B.” Further, the auditors would now need to certify the correctness of the particulars given in the annexure.
Additionally, the new form would ask for details on advancement made towards general public utility, and whether such activity was in the nature of trade, commerce, business or services.
