With the aim of “One Nation One Tax”, Goods and Services Tax (GST) was introduced in India on 1st July 2017 to unify different indirect taxes. The commencement of GST regime in India brought with itself the concept of GST return- a document in which the taxpayer under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) need to file the details of his/her income to the tax authorities. All the business entities need to get themselves separately registered under GST Regime and file their GST return in an online or offline mode.
As per the 37th GST Council Meeting, new GST return mechanism has taken its presence in GST regime from April 2020 (in acceptance of the proposal from October 2019).
All business dealers and entrepreneurs who are registered under the GST mechanism have to mandatorily file the GST returns in the relevant GST form either in online mode or offline.
The types and number of GST return to be filed depends on the taxpayer’s type like a regular taxpayer, TDS deductor, composition dealer, Distributor(ISD), e-commerce operator, non-resident taxpayer, Input Service provider and so on. In general, the two monthly returns viz. GSTR-1, GSTR-3B has to be filed by a regular taxpayer along with an annual return (GSTR-9/9C) for each GST registration individually, thereby summing up a total of 25 GSTR to be filed in a year.
Turnover | Type of Return | Due Date* | |
Up to 1.5 crore | Quarterly | April – June 2020 | 3rd August 2020 |
July – September 2020 | 31st October 2020 | ||
October – December 2020 | 31st January 2021 | ||
January – March 2020 | 30th April | ||
More than 1.5 crore | Monthly | 11th of next month |
Governing GST Act | Late filing fee per day |
Central Goods & Services Act, 2017 | INR 100 |
State Goods & Services Act, 2017 or Union Territory Goods and Services Act, 2017 | INR 100 |
Sum total | INR 200 |
According to the Integrated Goods and Services (IGST) Act, the penalty for late filing of IGST returns is equivalent to the total of the penalties based on the CGST Act and SGST/UTGST Act. So, the late filing of IGST would sum a fine of INR 200/day. It must be noted that the highest late filing fee for quarterly or monthly IGST return cannot be above INR 10,000 for each filing. Whereas the highest amount of late filing fee for each annual GSTR (GSTR 9) cannot be above 0.25% of the turnover.
Non-Filing of GST returns within the prescribed time may lead to the attraction of penalties and cancellation of GST registration. The cancellations of GST Registration occur when the registered person under GST does not submit the GST Return for a continuous period of six months. Once the GST Return is cancelled he/she would not be able to obtain another GST registration unless the entire late filing penalty is paid.
Here we go for the step by step process to file GSTR.
1. Login and Go to the GSTR-1 page.
2. Choose the quarterly or monthly GSTR.
3. Generate the summary of GSTR-1.
4. Fill the detailed information for the current tax period encompassing the amendments.
5. Preview GSTR-1.
6. Verify and Submit GSTR-1, to save the data entered.
7. E-file the GST Return- 1 with DSC or EVC.
Get hold of us for any help related to GST Returns and filing.