Online GST Return Filing - An Overview
As per the GST law, every individual/Company/LLP registered under the
GST Act has to furnish the details of sales, purchases and the tax paid by filing for
GST returns with the administrative authorities.
As a business person/ firm, one of your first priorities will be to do is GST return
filing. Hence, knowing the ropes can help you make the process smoother and simpler.
While filing a GST return, you are supposed to provide all the particulars related to
your business activities, like the tax liability declarations, tax payments and also any
other related information as per instructions provided by the government.
The GST return filing process has to be done electronically in the GST portal. A
facility has to be offered for the manual process of GST return filing tasks. This
facility helps the business taxpayer in India to prepare the return offline and then
upload it on GSTN through the facilitation centre. There are also various components of
GST returns filing that you need to know about.
The GST return mainly includes purchases, output GST on the sales, input tax credits as
per GST paid while making the purchases, and also includes the total sales. In order to
file the GST return, the purchase invoices and GST compliant sales are needed.
What are GST returns?
Any person who applies for GST registration will also have to make a GST return filing.
The GST return is basically a document which is needed as per the Indian tax authorities
of law, to be filed. It will be used by the authorities of tax for the purpose of
calculating the tax liability.
Who is eligible for GST returns?
Business owners and dealers who are registered under GST must file two monthly GST
returns and one annual GST returns. The nature of the business also dictates the GST
that is to be filed. GST returns are of various types and late filing of GST returns
will result in a penalty of Rs.100 per day till the day the GST returns are filed. Once
filing is done, any tax liability must be promptly paid to the government.
GST Input Tax Credit Reconciliation
GST or Goods and Services Tax is an indirect tax that depends on the value added at each
stage of the supply chain of a particular service or goods until it reaches the customer
or consumer. With GST, tax is imposed at various stages and to nullify the cascading
effect, it is designed in a way that is meant to refund all parties that are involved in
the various stages with the exception of the final consumer. This element that is
employed to offset the tax liability is called an input tax credit.
An insight into the GST filing procedure in India
Any business person who has taken the registration, but has not crossed the limit of
exemption will have to comply with the step-by-step GST billing process. From 1st April,
2019, the GST Council has increased the threshold limits of annual aggregate turnover
for GST registration. According to this, any business in normal category states, having
a turnover of Rs 40 lakhs for sale of goods needs to register. This limit is raised from
Rs 10 lakhs at Rs 20 lakhs for the special category states.
There has not been any change in the threshold limits for service providers. The same
has been kept at Rs 40 lakhs and Rs 20 lakhs for the normal category states and the
special category states respectively.
Special category states include,
State of Jammu and Kashmir and States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh,
Meghalaya, Sikkim and Uttarakhand.
Once the taxpayer crosses the limit of exemption, he/she will start filing for GST
returns. Even in cases where no taxable supplies are received or made during a
particular period, the taxpayer will have to file the NIL return. So, there is no way
that you can avoid GST filing. If you miss out filing the return of one period, then you
will not be able to file the next period’s return.
Let us simplify GST in this way- Any business will have to file monthly GST return twice
and annual return once.This implies that as a total, you will have to file GST returns
26 times a year. The GST portal issues 4 different types of forms for filing the GST
returns. They are:
- Return for purchases
- Return for supplies
- Annual returns
- Monthly returns
In case of small business taxpayers in India who have opted for a composition scheme, they
just have to file GST returns on a quarterly basis. Return filing process can be done
online.