Circular No. 402/92/2006-MC (40 OF 2010) — Of 2010 press release no. 402/92/2006 mc 40 of 2010 dated 9 9 2010

What this is

Circular No. 402/92/2006-MC (40 OF 2010) was issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes on 9 September 2010. Its subject is Of 2010 press release no. 402/92/2006 mc 40 of 2010 dated 9 9 2010.

This is an extension of time. It moves a date that the Act or the Rules otherwise fix, and it does so only for the compliance and the period it names — not for anything else that happens to fall due at the same time.

What it does

Extends the time for sending in the verification form for returns of assessment year 2009-10 filed electronically without a digital signature, to 31 December 2010 or 120 days from the date of filing, whichever is later. The form is accepted only at the Centralised Processing Centre at Bengaluru, by ordinary or speed post, at Post Bag No. 1, Electronic City Post Office, Bengaluru 560100, and no other place or mode of delivery will be accepted. A taxpayer who filed electronically on or after 1 April 2009 and never sent the form, one who handed it in at the local income-tax office, and one who posted it but never received the acknowledgement e-mail, are all told to post it, or post it again, to the Centre. The release warns that without the Centre's acknowledgement the return cannot be processed and no refund can issue, because it would be treated as not having been filed.

Why it was issued

Many taxpayers had either not sent the verification form at all or had filed it with the local income-tax office, and this was given as a final opportunity to regularise those returns.

Who it reaches

Taxpayers who filed the assessment year 2009-10 return electronically without a digital signature
Taxpayers who lodged the verification form with a local income-tax office
Taxpayers awaiting a refund whose return was never acknowledged by the Centre

The instrument, as the Board published it

The words below are the department’s own, reproduced from its published text. Where the department’s copy carried a publisher’s notes after the instrument, those are not reproduced.

PRESS RELEASE
INCOME-TAX ACT
Extension of time limit for filing ITR-V forms for assessment year 2009-10
PRESS RELEASE NO. 402/92/2006-MC (40 OF 2010), DATED 9-9-2010
The Central Board of Direct Taxes have extended the time limit for filing ITR-V forms relating to Income-tax returns filed electronically (without digital signature) for the assessment year 2009-10 up to 31st December 2010, or 120 days from the date of filing, whichever is later.
Many taxpayers have either not filed their ITR-V or have filed it with the local Income-tax office. ITR-V is accepted only at the Centralized Processing Center (CPC) of the Income-tax Department at Bengaluru by ordinary or speed post. Therefore, this final opportunity is being given to such taxpayers to regularize their Income-tax returns.
Taxpayers who have filed their returns electronically for assessment year 2009-10 on or after 1st April, 2009 and have not filed the ITR-V to the CPC may mail it by ordinary post or speed post at Post Bag No. 1, Electronic City Post Office, Bengaluru - 560100 (Karnataka). Taxpayers who have filed their ITR-V with the local Income-tax office may again mail their ITR-V to the CPC. Those taxpayers who have earlier mailed their ITR-V, but have not received the acknowledgement e-mail from the CPC, may re-mail their ITR-V to the CPC.
The ITR-V form should be mailed to the CPC only at the above address by ordinary post or speed post. Taxpayers may note that no other place or form of delivery will be accepted.
Taxpayers may also note that without acknowledgement of the ITR-V from the CPC it would not be possible for the Income-tax Department to process the Income-tax returns or issue any refunds therefrom, as these would be treated as not having been filed with the Department.
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What to watch

Handing the form in at the local office counts for nothing; only ordinary or speed post to the Bengaluru address works, and courier or personal delivery is expressly not accepted.
The date is the later of 31 December 2010 and 120 days from filing, so a return filed late in 2010 carried its own longer period.
Until the Centre acknowledges the form the return is treated as not filed, which is what stops both processing and any refund.
Both dates have long passed; the release matters now only in testing whether a 2009-10 return was validly verified.

Where you meet it

Where an assessment year 2009-10 return is shown as not filed, or a refund for that year was never issued, because the verification form did not reach the Centre.

← Circular No. 6 · Circular No. 4/FT&TR-II/2010 →

A circular binds the department, not you and not a court. The Board issues a circular to its own officers. An assessee may hold the department to a circular that helps him; the department cannot hold an assessee to one that hurts him, and the Tribunal and the courts decide the law for themselves.

Source: the Income Tax Department’s own published text — its page for this instrument.