Who is liable to take GST registration?
- Businesses registered under the Pre-GST law (i.e., Excise, VAT, Service Tax etc.).
- Businesses with turnover above the threshold limit of Rs. 20 Lakhs (Rs. 10 Lakhs for North-Eastern States).
- Casual taxable person / Non-Resident taxable person.
- Agents of a supplier & Input service distributor.
- Those paying tax under the reverse charge mechanism.
- Person who supplies via e-commerce aggregator.
- Person supplying online information and database access or retrieval services from a place outside India to a person in India, other than a registered taxable person.
Details required to be printed in invoice
- Name, Address and Contact details of supplier
- Name, Address and Contact details of recipient
- GSTIN of supplier and recipient
- Invoice number and date of invoice
- Place of supply
- Details of Goods and services
- HSN code (if turnover is above Rs. 1.5 crore yearly)
- Bifurcation of amount of tax into CGST, SGST and IGST
Requirement of HSN code in invoice
The requirement of HSN code in the invoice depends upon the turnover of previous financial year.
| Annual Turnover | Number of digit of HSN code |
| Upto Rs. 1.5 crore | Not required |
| Between 1.5 crore to 5 crore | 2 digit |
| More than 5 crore | 4 digit |
What is B2B and B2C ?
B2B means Business to Business transactions where recipient is also registered supplier and he is also taking credit. To put it in simple terms, wholesaler selling goods to retailer. For B2B supplies, all invoices level data will have to be uploaded irrespective of whether they are intra state or inter state supplies. This is so because the recipient will take ITC and thus, invoice matching is required to be done.
B2C means Business to customer transactions in which recipient is either consumer or unregistered person and not taking credit. For B2C supplies, uploading of invoice level data is not required. Only invoices of more than Rs. 2.5 lakh in inter state B2C supplies will have to be uploaded. All other supplies should be aggregated.
Returns as per the CGST Act
| Return Form | Particulars | Frequency | Due Date |
| GSTR-1 | Details of outward supplies | Monthly | 10th of the next month |
| GSTR-2 | Details of inward supplies | Monthly | 15th of the next month |
| GSTR-3 | Monthly return on the basis of finalization of details of outward supplies and inward supplies along with the payment of amount of tax. | Monthly | 20th of the next month |
| GSTR-3B | Simple return for Jul 2017- June 2018 | Monthly | 20th of the next month |
| GSTR-4 | Return for compounding taxable person | Quarterly | 18th of the month succeeding quarter |
| GSTR-5 | Return for Non-Resident foreign taxable person | Monthly | 20th of the next month |
| GSTR-6 | Return for Input Service Distributor | Monthly | 13th of the next month |
| GSTR-7 | Return for authorities deducting tax at source. | Monthly | 10th of the next month |
| GSTR-8 | Details of supplies effected through e-commerce operator | Monthly | 10th of the next month |
| GSTR-9 | Annual Return | Annually | 31st December of next financial year |
| GSTR-9A | Annual Return | Monthly | 31st December of next financial year |
| GSTR-10 | Final Return | Once. When registration is cancelled or surrendered | Within three months of the date of cancellation or date of cancellation order, whichever is later. |
| GSTR-11 | Details of inward supplies to be furnished by a person having UIN and claiming refund | Monthly | 28th of the month following the month for which statement is filed |
At present, upto 30th June, 2018 following returns are required to be filled for normal businesses:
| Turnover | GSTR-3B | GSTR-1 |
| Upto Rs. 1.5 Crore | Monthly | Quarterly |
| More than Rs. 1.5 Crore | Monthly | Monthly |
Return filing is mandatory under GST. Even if there is no transaction, you must file a Nil return. You cannot file a return if you don’t file previous month/quarter’s return. Hence, late filing of GST return will have a cascading effect leading to heavy fines and penalty.
Simplification of GST returns
Initially when the GST was launched on 01st July, 2017, the businesses were required to file a simplified sales return 3B and also final sales returns (GSTR-1), purchase return (GSTR-2) and finally two was required to be auto-populated to generate GSTR-3.
As businesses complained of hardship in filing GSTR-2 on the GSTN portal, the Council in November decided to keep filing of GSTR-2 and 3 in abeyance till March. All businesses now have to file GSTR-3B every month while Businesses with turnover up to Rs 1.5 crore have to file GSTR-1 every quarter, while those with turnover over Rs 1.5 crore have to file the return on the 10th day of the succeeding month.
The committee under the leadership of GSTN chairman Mr. Ajay Bhushan Pandey after consulting stakeholders will try and bring in a process under which once the seller uploads the sales invoice on the GSTN portal, it would automatically show in their returns. The committee is looking at reducing the requirement of filing three returns a month and to help honest tax payers with a simplified process.
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