Govt. notifies income computation and disclosure standard for purpose of Section 145; effective from April 1, 2015

Section 145(2) of the Income-tax Act (‘the Act’) provides that the Central Government may notify Accounting Standards (‘AS’) for any class of assessees or any class of income. In 1996, two AS relating to ‘disclosure of accounting policies’ and ‘disclosure of prior period and extraordinary items and changes in accounting policies’ were notified.

In December, 2010 the CBDT has constituted the Committee to harmonize the AS issued by the ICAI with the provisions of the Act for the purposes of notification under the Act and to suggest amendments to the Act. The Committee recommended that some of the AS issued by ICAI related to ‘disclosure’ requirement, whilst some other contained matter are adequately dealt within the Act. In view of this, the Committee formulated the drafts of only fourteen Tax Accounting Standards (‘TAS’) issued by the ICAI. It submitted its final report along with draft of TAS in August, 2012 which was placed in public domain for comments.

After examining the comments, the CBDT has revised the draft of twelve TAS submitted by the Committee and it has withdrawn draft of TAS which correspond to AS-4 on "Contingencies and Events Occurring After the Balance Sheet Date" and AS-5 on "Net Profit or Loss for the Period, Prior Period Items and changes in Accounting Policies". The Committee reiterates its stand taken in previous report that that the TAS notified under the Act is applicable only for computation of income chargeable under the head "profit and gains of business or profession" or "income from other sources" and not for the purpose of maintenance of books of accounts. It further reiterates that in the case of conflict between the provisions of the Act andtheseAccounting standards, the provisions of the Act shall prevail tothat extent.

The CBDT invited comments and suggestions on new draft of standards by February, 8, 2015. The CBDT has now notified the Income Disclosure and Tax Accounting Standards vide notification no. 32/2015, F. No. 134/48/2010-TPL, dated March 31, 2015.