CBDT Panel on Accounting Standards recommends no books be maintained in case of no taxable income

THE CBDT Panel on Accounting Standards has submitted its final report to the Board. This committee was constituted comprising of departmental officers and professionals in December, 2010 to inter alia suggest AS for the purposes of notification under section 145 (2) of the Act. The Committee submitted its first Interim Report in August 2011. A discussion paper containing the main recommendations of the Committee was issued in October, 2011 for inviting comments/suggestions from all stakeholders.

Section 145 (1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (‘the Act') provides that the income chargeable under the head “Profits and gains of business or profession” or “Income from other sources” shall [subject to the provisions of sub-section (2)] be computed in accordance with either cash or mercantile system of accounting regularly employed by the assessee. Section 145 (2) provides that the Central Government may notify Accounting Standards (‘AS') for any class of assessees or for any class of income.

In its final report, the Panel has recommended that the AS notified under the Act should be made applicable only to the computation of taxable income and a taxpayer would not be required to maintain books of account on the basis of AS notified under the Act. The Committee examined all the 31 AS issued by the ICAI and recommended notification of AS on 14 issues under the Act and formulated drafts of AS on these issues. The Committee has termed them as “Tax Accounting Standards” (TAS) to distinguish from the AS issued by the ICAI/notified under the Companies Act, 1956.

The comments and suggestions on the final report may be submitted by 26th November, 2012 at the email addresses (dirtpl3@nic.in or rkbhoot@gmail.com).