FAQs by ICAI Stats CAs cannot Certify ITR with UDIN

Chartered Accountants have no authorities to qualify an Income Tax Return as a genuine document, said ICAI in the set of FAQs which was in regard to issuing the UDIN.

FAQs by Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) can be a reference on Registration, Stakeholder/Third Party Verification, Certificates/Attestation Functions, GST and Tax Audit, Audit Assurance Functions, Revocation/Cancellation of UDIN, and so on…

UDIN is the Unique Document Identification Number which is assigned to any a document for legal authorities to confirm the authenticity of that particular document. The concept of UDIN is in practice with the goal of curbing the fraudulent in the country. UDIN being issued by a Chartered Accountant to any document confirming the authenticity of the information can be traced easily by the banks, regulatory body or third party stakeholders.

By tracing the UDIN the authorities can verify the credentials of the CA to reassure that the documents are validated by them only.

To be noted: As directed by ICAI, CAs are not authorized to issue the UDIN to any Income Tax Return (ITR).

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Below statements are given by ICAI related to the applicability of UDIN in a document:

• Any regulatory or third party stakeholder needs no prior registration to verify the documents. For verifying a document they need to enter the UDIN number, mobile number and the name of the organization searching the UDIN.

• There are certain pre-verified documents by authorities for which UDIN is not required.

• UDIN (if required) can be mentioned in physical as well as digital documents/certificates/online forms like Form 15 CB, MCA, etc. For digitally signed documents or online certificates, UDIN thus created has to be informed to the Management or the authorized individual.

• In case if there is no field for UDIN in the electronic reports then UDIN has to be created and communicated to the Management or the authorized individual to broadcast it to the stakeholders.
• The same UDIN will not work for periodic reports like Limited Review / Quarterly Review Reports, Concurrent Audits etc. Every time they are prepared a fresh UDIN will be created by concerned officials to authenticate the document.

• Before generating a UDIN one must re-confirm the information entered to generate the UDIN with the help of the preview option. UDIN once generated will not be altered.

• No limit is defined with regards to generating the UDIN. One can generate as many UDIN as required.

• UDIN shall be mentioned after the Signature and Membership Number of the Member on the Report/ Certificate.

• After the conclusion of joint audits, all the concerned Auditors have to generate a separate UDIN and mention their respective UDINs on the reports duly signed by them. Auditors may use different or same keywords while generating the UDIN.

• It is mandatory for the concerned authorities to mention a UDIN along with their signature on the Documents/Certificates/Audit Reports. UDIN thus required has to be generated within 15 to 30 days of signing such documents (refer the Annexure 6 of this booklet). UDIN created communicated to the Management or the authorized individual to broadcast it to the stakeholders.

• ICAI members (CAs) are not authorized to generate the UDIN for an ITR to prove its authenticity. However, they can create an opinion, report or certificate about ITR related to its authenticity for doing so UDIN is required by the officials.