HOW TO FILE GST RETURN

GST, which is an acronym for Goods and Services Tax is now an act under the constitution. GST is the biggest tax reform in India since our independence and it subsumes all the indirect taxes. It is going to be a single tax system on the sale, manufacture and consumption of goods and services. GST aims to cover a wide range of taxes which includes Service Tax, State Value Added Tax(VAT), Additional Customs Duty, Central Excise Duty and a few others at the state level and central too. The consolidation of various taxes will lessen the tax burden on an average taxpayer thus improving his efficiency. A GST council headed by the current Finance Minister will be responsible for the activities involving GST.

Steps involved in filing your GST return:

• The taxpayer is required to upload his GST Return-1 either directly on the GST Common Portal or he could upload files via an app. This has to furnished by the 10th day of the month succeeding the month in which goods and services were supplied. Any fluctuation in supply invoices could be handled only by the counter-party purchaser up to the 17th day of the month (a seven day period after GSTR-1). In other words, the supplier is forbidden from uploading any missing invoices after the 10th day.
• The GST Common Portal will draft the GST Return-2 of the taxpayer automatically on the basis of the details of the supply invoices that were reported by the counter-party taxpayer.
• The purchasing taxpayer has the option to accept or reject or modify the auto drafted provisional GST Return-2.
• The Purchasing taxpayer will also be liable to upload additional invoice details in his GST Return-2 in case it has not been uploaded by counter-party taxpayer as described above. In this case, the taxpayer must possess valid and authentic invoices issued by the counter-party taxpayers to indicate he actually received the said supplies.
• Taxpayers also have the option to do a reconciliation of inward supplies with counter-party taxpayers during the period of 7 days. They can follow up with their counter-party taxpayers regarding any missing supply invoices in GST Return-1.
• Taxpayers will then finalise their GSTR-1 and GSTR-2 by using an online facility at the Common Portal in their accounting applications, examine the liability on their supplies, determine the eligible Input Tax Credit (ITC) on their purchases and then go on to generate the net tax liability for each type of tax from the system. Cash details as per personal register, ITC carried forward from the tax period gone by, ITC reversal, etc. would also come under the GSTR-3.
• Post finalisation of the above-mentioned activities, the taxpayer will pay the amount that will be shown in the draft of GSTR-3. It will be generated automatically at the online portal.

After the payment, the process comes to an end.