GST Annual Return- Form GSTR-9

Goods and Services Tax has already completed one Financial Year and there are some annual compliances which are required to be taken care of at the end of each Financial Year. One such compliance is filing of Annual return which is a consolidated summary of transactions carried out in previous financial year.

Filing of first Annual return can be a challenge for taxpayers as some of the periodical returns as envisaged in the GST law (i.e. GSTR-2 and GSTR-3) were not made active during the previous financial year and in absence of clear instructions on how and where to report certain transactions, many assessees were under confusion and thus filed their periodical returns as per their own understanding. Due to this, many reconciliation differences may arise and taxpayers may unnecessarily come under the scanner of revenue department.

The annual return once filed cannot be revised and therefore, it is of utmost importance to be extra vigilant in reporting transactions in annual return.

Who are required to File Annual Return

Following category of people are required to file Annual return at the end of financial year

1. All taxable person;
2. Taxable person opted to pay tax under Composition Scheme.

Who are exempted from Annual Return

1. Casual Taxable Person;
2. Non-resident taxable person;
3. Input Service Distributor;
4. E-commerce operator who are required to collect tax at source;

(This exclusion is only restricted to reporting of transactions related to taxable supplies carried out on its E-commerce portal on which it is required to collect tax at source. However, it shall be liable to file Annual Return in form GSTR-9 for the taxable supplies made by it during the financial year.)

5. Taxable person who are required to deduct tax at source.

(This exclusion is only restricted to reporting of transactions related to taxable supplies received by the specified person who are required to deduct tax at source. It shall be liable to file Annual Return in form GSTR-9 for the taxable supplies made by it during the financial year.)

6. Any department of the Central Government or a State Government or a local authority, whose books of account are subject to audit by the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India or an auditor appointed for auditing the accounts of local authorities under any law for the time being in force.

Due Date of Annual Return

Every taxable person who is required to file the annual return shall file the same on or before 31^st December of the subsequent financial year. Therefore, for the financial year 2017-18, the last date of filing of annual return is 31^st December 2018.

However, FY 2017-18 being the first year, the last date of filing of annual return has been extended till 30^th June 2019.

Annual Return Forms

Form GSTR9             – All registered taxpayers (Other than those who opted to pay tax under Composition Scheme)

Form GSTR 9A          – Taxable person who have opted to pay tax under Composition Scheme

Form GSTR 9B         – It is not a return but a statement of tax collected at source by E commerce operator on the supplies made through their E-commerce portal. This form is yet to be notified.

Form GSTR 9C          – Reconciliation statement which is required to be filed by every taxable person whose annual turnover during the previous financial year exceeds Rs. 2 crore along with the annual return in Form GSTR-9.

Penalty for Non filing or late filing of Annual Return

The Late filing of Annual return attracts a penalty of Rs. 100 under CGST Act and Rs. 100 under SGST Act subject to maximum of 0.25% of turnover under CGST Act and 0.25% of turnover under SGST Act.

Thus if a taxable person fails to file the annual return then it shall be liable to pay penalty of Rs. 200 per day during which default continues subject to maximum of 0.50% of turnover.

For Instance, ABC Ltd has a turnover of 10 crores during the F. Y. 2017-18 and it fails to file the annual return within due time limit.

The penalty which can be imposed on ABC Ltd shall be Rs. 200 per day during which default continues subject to the maximum of Rs. 5,00,000/- (i.e. 0.25% of turnover under CGST and 0.25% under SGST)

Overview of GST Annual Return

The GST Annual Return in Form GSTR-9 comprises of 6 parts

Part 1 – Basic Details about taxable person

Part 2 – Details of all Outward supplies and inward supplies subject to reverse charge

Part 3 – Details of Input Tax credit during the financial year

Part 4 – Details of taxes and other amount (Viz., Interest, penalty etc.) paid and declared in the returns during the Financial year

Part 5 – Details of transactions pertaining to previous financial year which were reported in the period April to September of the next financial year or upto the date of filing of annual return whichever is earlier.

(For the FY 2017-18, the period of April to September shall be read as April to March of the next year as the last date for adjustments of previous financial year (FY 2017-18) transaction has been extended till the month of March 2019)

Part 6 – Other Information

The GST Annual return fetches the information.

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