Tax Accounting Standard (TAS)

A CBDT appointed committee has recommended as many as 14 tax accounting standards. These standards, also known as TAS, if and when adopted, will have a significant impact on computation of income chargeable to tax. The Finance Ministry on Friday released the final report of the committee for public comments. Stakeholders can send in their suggestions and comments on the final report by November 26 to the CBDT, an official release said.. 

In its final report, the Committee recommended that the accounting standards notified under the income tax law should be made applicable only to the computation of taxable income. It has also suggested that a taxpayer would not be required to maintain books of account on the basis of accounting standards notified under the income tax law.

In the case of conflict between the provisions of the Income-tax law and the TAS, the provisions of the Income-tax law shall prevail to that extent, the committee has said. The Committee examined all the 31 Accounting Standards issued by the CA Institute and recommended notification of tax accounting standards on 14 issues under the income tax law.

The committee also formulated drafts of tax accounting standards on these 14 issues. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had in December 2010 set up this committee to study the harmonisation of accounting standards issued by the CA Institute with the direct tax laws in India. It was also tasked to recommend accounting standards which needed to be adopted u/s 145(2) of the income tax law. The committee had in August 2011 given initial recommendations.

The final report was submitted in August 2012. In October 2011, two draft tax accounting standards – one on construction contracts and the other on Government grants were issued by the tax department for public comments.
Currently, only two standards relating to disclosure of accounting policies and disclosure of prior period and extraordinary items have been notified by the Tax Department. (The Hindu)