With numerous changes and nuances relating to Tax Audit, the Taxation Committee of the society organised a seminar on Intricate Issues relating to Tax Audit Reporting on 19th August, 2022, in hybrid mode. The seminar comprised of three sessions and was conducted in-person at BCAS office and simultaneous through the BCAS online hybrid learning platform.CA Paresh Clerk explained the importance of documentation, various audit techniques and quality control while carrying out a tax audit. He also touched upon the various clauses of Form 3CD and explained the applicability of Form 3CA-3CB. He also replied to various queries raised by online and offline participants.

In the second session, CA Rutvik Sanghvi addressed the issue of reporting of Foreign Income and claiming foreign tax credits and filing various other important forms. He explained the reporting mechanism along with applicable rules in a very lucid manner. He shared his practical insights on a few issues faced by the participants.

In the last session, CA Vallabh Gokhale touched upon all the important clauses in the Form 3CD, including two new clauses relating to GAAR and GST applicable from F.Y. 2021-22. He explained both the new clauses in detail with various examples and gave his views on the likely issues which most of the assesses would face while filling up the said clauses.

As part of the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations, the BCAS Foundation, along with the SPR&MD Committee, organised a ‘Blood Donation Camp & Discounted Health Check-up Camp’ on 20th August 2022, at the Brahmakumaris’ GHRC BSES M G Hospital.

In the past, all such camps have been held at the BCAS office, and this was the first out-of-the-office venture specially targeted towards the Society members located in the western suburbs. The medical team at the hospital was ably led by Dr. Madhura Patkar, Medical Administrator. The hospital also made available attractive Discounted Check-Up Plans, and the opportunity to meet and seek medical advice from a wide range of consultants at an extremely nominal price, to the members, their families, and friends.

The spiritual culture that is deeply ingrained in the DNA of the hospital made the interaction a truly memorable experience.

WORKSHOP ON PROCESS AUTOMATION UNDER GST

The Indirect Taxation Committee of BCAS organised a half-day Workshop on Process Automation under GST on 10th September 2022, at Jolly Bhavan. The speakers were CA Jigar Doshi and CA Yash Goenka.

The workshop was directed at how to reduce the time involved in preparing GST Returns and other related compliances using Robotic Process Automation (RPA), a business process automation technology based on metaphorical software robots (bots) or on artificial intelligence.

Both the speakers took the participants through the entire process of preparing Macros and preparing a BoT by giving a live demo. They explained how the RPA tools allow data to be handled in and between multiple applications, for instance, receiving an email containing an invoice, extracting the data, and then typing that into a bookkeeping system. Their presentation covered Enterprise Modernization, developing a Macro, benefits of RPA solutions and using the same in resolving the problem statements in GST, live designing and development of a BOT together with preparation of Business Requirement Document (BRD) and User Requirement Specification (URS) including preparing a Flowchart enabling decision making in RPA.

Considering requests from members, the recording of the same will be put on Course Play for the benefit of those who could not attend. They can subscribe for the same and watch it at their convenience.

The workshop was very well received, and the participants requested a more detailed workshop on the same topic. Considering the same, the Committee has organized on similar workshop on the same with hands-on practical training on 19th November 2022.

A special event was organised for the freshly qualified Chartered Accountants of the May 2022 final examination on 10th September 2022, at the BCAS Hall under the aegis of the Seminar, Public Relations & Membership Development (SPR&MD) Committee.

The evening started with Convenor, CA Preeti Cherian, welcoming all the participants by acknowledging the fantastic performance of Mumbai finalists, and the presence of 14 rank holders in the house (including AIR 1 and AIR 4). This was followed by the address of the President, CA Mihir Sheth, who took the opportunity to reminisce about his days as a young Chartered Accountant, the sound advice he had received to associate with BCAS, and the benefits he had reaped from that. He briefed the audience on the various initiatives of the Society and invited them to be part of this vibrant organisation. Vice President, CA Chirag Doshi, addressed the audience and encouraged them to try new avenues and identify themselves with a mentor who would be able to guide them.

In his address, the Chairman of the SPR&MD Committee, CA Narayan Pasari, praised the Youth or Yuva Shakti, which forms an integral part of the numerous activities organised by the BCAS. He also appealed to the new CAs to become members and play an active role. While speaking about the Committee’s initiatives, he dwelled on the BCAS Referencer, Annual RRC, Mentor-Mentee Program, etc. He shared that the Season 2 announcement for the Mentor-Mentee Program (scheduled for Nov/ Dec 2022) would soon be rolled out and invited the participants to register at the earliest given the minimum available seats.

This was followed by the Fireside Chat with the three eminent speakers. CA Jayant Gokhale shared his three principles – (1) Understand and analyse the problem; (2) Be confident – do not fear failure and seek guidance from the right mentors; (3) Have empathy and understanding for your client. He advised the young hopefuls to allow themselves a year or two to explore and try out different things so that they could identify what is it that they would like to do. He suggested that they prepare a list of priorities and follow their passion.

CA Anand Bathiya shared his insights on critical choices between practice vs. employment, boutique vs. big firms, specialization vs. versatility and related quandary. Talking on secondary courses post-qualification, he emphasised on developing skillsets surrounding emerging technologies to build a tech edge. He also spoke on nuances of setting up a new practice and methodical approach towards practice management that can be followed.

CA Mudit Yadav gave the audience a refreshing perspective on the word ‘confusion’ – he reminded the audience that confusion is a privilege they enjoy because they have the resources, power and freedom (having passed one of the toughest exams in the world). Look at the first job as an experiment. If someone is working with a corporate and is wondering whether the practice is their calling, they may consider offering their weekends to a CA firm on a pro bono basis for six months to see for themselves.

This was then followed by the felicitation ceremony, with the 14 rankers being felicitated first and AIR 1, Meet Shah, and AIR 4, Akshat Jain, sharing their thoughts, followed by cake cutting by them. The rest of the achievers were also felicitated. The event showcased the vibrancy of the participants, many of whom showed great interest in signing up to be members of the BCAS.

The session is highly recommended for young professionals. Incase you missed it, but still interested in viewing the entire session video?

Visit the below link OR scan the below QR code with your phone camera:

Link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdubHfRWygw

IESG MEETING – FREAKONOMICS

The International Economics Study Group of BCAS held a meeting on Freakonomics on 14th September 2022. Freakonomics is a ground-breaking collaboration between Levitt and an award-winning author and journalist, Stephen J. Dubner. Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Freakonomics shows that economics is, at root, how people get what they want or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. Freakonomics challenges how we think all over again, exploring the hidden side of everything. There are 3 main themes: (1) Incentives, the issue of how we react to rewards and punishments, (2) Information asymmetry, and what consequences arise from various gaps of knowledge and how we try to compensate for those, and (3) Causation vs. correlation and how we often try to explain things the wrong way.