CBDT to validate UDIN: Know the timeline to avoid invalid submission of tax audit reports

ICAI had made generation of UDIN from ICAI website mandatory for every kind of certificate or tax audit report.

The income tax e-filing portal had already made it mandatory for quoting Unique Document Identification Number (UDIN) with effect from 27th April 2020. This was for documents certified or attested in compliance with the Income-tax Act,1961 by a Chartered Accountant.

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.

With this system-level integration, UDIN provided for the audit reports or certificates submitted by the Chartered Accountants in the e-filing portal will 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 or 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 or certificate is not updated within the 15 days provided for the same, such audit report or certificate uploaded shall be treated as invalid submission.

Earlier, The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, in its gazette notification dated 2nd August 2019, had made the generation of UDIN from ICAI website 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.