Mandatory validation of UDIN in all Income Tax Forms

According to the press release dated 26th of November 2020 by Central Board of Direct Taxes w.r.t the notification issued by The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (the ICAI), in its gazette notification dated 2nd of August, 2019 has 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.

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 also finished it's integrating with the #ICAI for validating the UDIN generated from ICAI portal by the Chartered Accountants for documents certified/attested by them.

In view of the above income-tax e-filing portal has already mandated quoting of UDIN with effect from 27th of April 2020 for documents certified/attested in compliance with the Income-tax Act,1961 by a Chartered Accountant. Further also income-tax e-filing portal has provided window of 15 calendar days to update UDIN in case he/she was not able to generate UDIN on the day of filing.

Latest Update dated 19th of December 2020

As per their above press release dated 26th of November 2020, CBDT validates the Unique Document Identification Number (UDIN) created from the ICAI portal when uploading the Tax Audit and other Income Tax Reports. Tax audit reports/forms submitted to and from the e-filing site as of 27th of November 2020. Only if their UDINs have been authenticated by the CBDT

e-filing portal will the tax reports/forms be considered as legitimate.

UDIN is evaluated by an online e-filing portal with the three variables of the ICAI UDIN portal:

1. Membership No of Member (MRN)

2. UDIN

3. Income Tax Form Number

Therefore, the form number selected at the UDIN portal during the generation of UDIN must also be selected at the e-filing portal when UDIN is updated at the time of the upload of reports or within 15 days afterwards. Therefore, members are expected to ensure that the correct form number is selected from the UDIN Portal drop-down line. The list of IT online forms available in the Drop Down section of the UDIN Portal under the GST and Tax Audit categories can be viewed here for ready reference.

Tax Audit Reports / Forms uploaded on e-filing portal between 27th of April 2020 and 26th of November 2020

With this feature of mentioning UDIN in IT Forms at the e-filing portal from 27 of April 2020 onwards, CBDT has emerged. It is noted that some members may have created UDIN for IT Forms well in time, but somehow missed the same update on the 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 of 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 of December 2020 for all such IT Forms which have been uploaded by them from 27th of April 2020 onwards till 26th of November 2020. For facilitation of Members, the steps and screenshots of the e-filing portal involved for updating UDIN are 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, the e-filing portal automatically validates it and shows an error message if it is not validated successfully.

For detailed FAQs please click here

For any clarification, please write at udin@icai.in or call at 033-30840239.