A Brief on GST Returns

by CCH Online CCH Tax Online

The Goods and Service Tax (GST) has been introduced as a boon to align the growing Indian economy with the global standards of One Nation, One Tax. The focus has been kept on lesser and easier compliances in the form of payment of taxes, the filing of returns and other ancillary procedures under GST and yet one of the majorly debated and sought-after issue is GST Returns and their compliances. All entities having a GST registration number need to mandatorily file GST returns, irrespective of turnover or profitability during the period. Thus, even a dormant business must file a NIL Return under GST and it is not possible to file the current return if the return for the previous period is not yet filed.

Different types of returns have been introduced separately for all the different categories of taxpayers under respective GST state rules with slight modifications suitable for the respective taxpayer accordingly.

Therefore, it is pertinent to go through the following list of returns and their respective features, due dates, and frequency as indicated by the Central Excise and Customs & GST Council to make sure that the filing of GST Returns is proper and correct to avoid wrongful credit disallowance, interest, and penalties.

Form No.	Details	Due Date	Frequency
GSTR-1	For Details of outward supplies of taxable goods & services. Also forms the basis of all future matching of Input Tax Credit (ITC).	10th of next month (subject to changes by GSTN for ease of taxpayer)	Monthly
GSTR-2	Details of inward supplies of taxable goods & services for claiming ITC.	15th of next month	Monthly
GSTR-2A	Auto-generated read only return to confirm the purchase invoices for the supplier of goods & services.	Review from 11th to 15th of next month	Monthly
GSTR-3	Details of outward supplies and inward supplies along with the payment of amount of tax, i.e. (GSTR 1 + GSTR 2)	20th of next month	Monthly
GSTR-3B	Simple return for Jul 2017 till further suspension Notice	20th of next month	Monthly
GSTR-4	Return for composite taxpayers (turnover up to 1.5 crores)	18th of next month of every quarter	Quarterly
GSTR-5	For Non-Resident foreign taxpayer	20th of next month	Monthly
GSTR-6	For Input Service Distributor (ISD) distributing common input to respective branches	13th of next month	Monthly
GSTR-7	For authorities liable to deduct tax at source (TDS).	10th of next month	Monthly
GSTR-8	Details of supplies made through e-commerce operator (ECO) including the amount of tax collected at source (TCS)	10th of next month	Monthly
GSTR-9	Annual Return compiling data for the whole year	31st December of next financial year	Annually
GSTR-10	Final Return	Within three months of the date of cancellation of registration or date of cancellation order, whichever is later	Only when registration is cancelled or surrendered
GSTR-11	Details of inward supplies to be furnished by a person having UIN (Unique Identification Number) and claiming refund of ITC on inputs/ tax on exports	28th of month following the month for which statement is filed	Monthly

In the recent Council meeting, simplified returns viz., Sahaj & Sugam have been proposed to make sure that most of the fields are auto-populated. Also, cutting down the number of returns filed from current 37 returns to approximately 13 returns in a year, which is a welcome move to ease compliances.