CBDT to validate Unique Document Identification Number (UDIN) generated from ICAI portal at the time of upload of Tax Audit Reports.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes vide its press release dated 26^th November 2020 has decided to validate Unique Document Identification Number (UDIN) generated from ICAI portal at the time of upload of Tax Audit Reports.
 ICAI in its earlier notification dated 2^nd August 2019 had made generation of UDIN from ICAI website www.icai.org mandatory for every kind of certificate/tax audit report and other attests made by their members as required by various regulators. This was introduced to curb fake certifications by non-CAs misrepresenting themselves as Chartered Accountants and whereas the Income-tax e-filing portal has completed its integration with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) portal for validation of Unique Document Identification Number (UDIN) generated from ICAI portal by the Chartered Accountants for documents certified/attested by them.

Since the Chartered Accountants was not able to generate UDIN before submission of audit report/certificate, the Income-tax e-filing portal permits such submission, subject to the Chartered Accountant updating the UDIN generated for the form within 15 calendar days from the date of form submission in the Income- tax efiling portal. If the UDIN for the audit report/certificate is not updated within the 15 days provided for the same, such audit report/certificate uploaded shall be treated as invalid submission.