Treatment of Year-End Provisions for Expenses in ITR Filing, Income Tax

[Ramanathan Seshan]

Dear Experts,

Company A has been consistently following a practice of creating year-end provisions for expenses where either the vendors are not identifiable, the exact amount is not known, bills have not been received, or invoices haven't been processed for payment/credit before closing the books of account.

These provisions are then reversed on the first day of the following financial year. When the actual invoices are received in the next year, the company books the expenses accordingly and deducts and remits the applicable TDS at that point.

In this context, I have the following questions:

a) At the time of filing the ITR, should the company disallow 100% of such provisioned expenses where invoices are still pending?

b) If it is certain that the invoices will be received, but only after the ITR filing due date, can the company opt to disallow only 30% of those expenses under Section 40(a)(ia)?

c) Additionally, in cases where the invoice value received after filing the ITR is lower than the amount originally provisioned, what would be the appropriate remedial action for the company? How should the excess provision be treated in the books and from a tax compliance perspective ?

Regards,

S Ram