Section 44 makes it obligatory on every registered person including the person registered under section 10 (Composition Taxable person) to electronically file annual return on or before 31st December 2018 following the end of each financial year i.e. it has to be filed GSTIN wise in respect of each & every registration and even in respect of each & every vertical registered in each state under the same PAN. The Government has notified the Form GSTR-9 & 9A (notification 39/2018 dated 04.09.2018) for filing of Annual Returns.
As per Section 44(1) read with rule 80(1) Form GSTR-9 is applicable for all the registered regular persons and Form GSTR-9 A is for person registered under section 10.
However the following categories of registered persons are exempted for filing of Annual Return under section 44:
a) Input Service distributor.
b) Casual Taxable person.
c) Non- resident Taxable person.
d) Persons paying Tax under section 51(TDS Deductor) or section 52 (E-Commerce Operator).
Section 44(2) read with rule 80 (3) further casts a duty on every registered person whose aggregate turnover during a financial year exceeds Rupees two Crore, to file GSTR Form-9-C as notified vide notification 49/2018 dated 13.09.2018 along with GSTR-9. Such person shall get his accounts audited as per the provisions of section 35(2) and shall furnish a copy of audited annual accounts and a reconciliation statement in Form 9-C electronically.
It is Important to note that E-Commerce Operators though exempted from filing of Annual Return, but as per section 52(5) read with rule 80(2) they are required to file Annual Statement in Form 9-B on or before 31st December following the end of each financial year. This GSTR-9B is not applicable for the financial year 2017-18 as the provision of TCS for e-commerce under section 52 is made applicable vide notification no.52/2018 dated 20.09.2018 only.
Section 47 of the Act provides for the Late Fees of Rs.100/day per Act i.e. maximum Rs.200 per day subject to maximum of 0.25% of taxpayer turnover in the state or union territory for not filing the GSTR-9 within the due date.
GSTR-9 –Detail Analysis
Broadly GSTR-9 is divided into 6(I to VI) parts which are further grouped within 19 (1 to 19) Tables:
PART- I of GSTR-9 Annual Return under GST deals with the Basic Details of the Tax Payer
Table 1 is for the financial year for which GSTR-9 is to be filed
Table 2 requires the GSTIN of the Tax Payer.
Table 3 & 3A is for Legal & Trade name if any of the Tax Payer.
The above said information is easily available with all the taxpayer.
PART-II of GSTR-9 Annual Return under GST deals with Details of Outward and Inward supplies on which tax is payable in respect of return filed during the period from 01.07.2017 to 31.03.2018:
Table 4 require data of
A) B2C outward supplies after adjusting the credit/Debit notes in this respect.
B) B2B outward supplies.
C) Export with payment of taxes
D) Export without payment of taxes.
E) Deemed Export as detailed in Notification 48/2017 dtd. 18.10.2017.
F) Advance outstanding as on 31.03.2018 on which tax has been paid but invoicing in that respect is still pending.
G) Inward supplies on which reverse charge is paid as per section 9(3) of CGST Act/5(3) of IGST Act in respect of specified transaction and as per section 9(4) of CGST5(3) of IGST Act which was effective till 12.10.2017 in respect of inward supplies from unregistered person .
I & J) Credit /Debit Notes in respect of b2b supplies raised & reported in GSTR-1 return for the period from 01.07.2017 to 31.03.2018.
K & l) Amendments in supplies in respect of Table 4A to 4G, 4I & 4J which was reported in the GSTR-1 return for the period from 01.07.2018 to 31.03.2018.
Table 5 deals with details of outward supplies on which no tax is payable. All the sub tables of Table 5 is self-explanatory like it requires the detail of Export or SEZ supply with LUT or Bond, Exempt Supply, Non GST Supply, outward supplies on which recipient is liable to pax tax on RCM basis, Credit/Debit notes raised and amendments effected in GSTR-1 filed in respect of said supplies during the period from 01.07.2017 to 31.03.2018.
PART-III of GSTR-9 Annual Return under GST deals with details of ITC availed in GSTR-3B filed during the period from 01.07.17 to 31.03.18.
Table 6A reflects the ITC that is auto populated from GSTR-3B.
Table 6B to 6E require the detail of Input Tax Credit as claimed by the tax payer in GSTR-3B which is further bifurcated into three heads viz. Inputs, Capital Goods and Input Services, which appear to be a tedious task as the same was not at all required earlier at any place of filing of GSTR returns.
Table 6F talks about IGST paid on import of services, Table 6G for ITC received from Input Service Distributors, Table 6H for ITC reclaimed which was reversed earlier & Table 6K & 6L for ITC of Tran-I & Tran-II. Table- M talks of ITC which doesn’t find any place at the said ITC tables.
Table 7 talks about the ITC reversal made under various Rules & Section of the Act.
Table 7A reversal as per Rule 37- ITC reversal on account of non-payment of value of supply along with tax within 180 days from the date of invoice.
Table 7B reversal as per Rule 39- ITC reversal which was earlier distributed by ISD.
Table 7C reversal as per Rule 42-ITC reversal if inputs used partly for business and partly for non-business purpose or if inputs used for effecting taxable as well as exempt supply.
Table 7D reversal as per Rule 43-ITC Reversal if Capital Goods used partly for business and partly for non-business purpose or if Capital Goods used for effecting taxable as well as exempt supply.
Table 7E reversal as per section 17(5)- Generally Nil as auto populated figure in Table 6A does not contain ineligible ITC.
Table 7F & 7G reversal if any in respect of TRAN-I & TRAN-II.
Table 7H reversal which doesn’t find place in Table 7A to 7G
Table 8 A to K are self-explanatory and this table basically derives the credit which is going to lapsed during the financial year because of the fact that such credit is either ineligible to the taxpayer or he might have forego the same voluntarily.
PART-IV Table- 9 deals with details of Tax paid both through credit & cash as shown in GSTR-3B filed during the period from 01.07.17 to 31.03.18.
Part-V of GSTR-9 Annual Return under GST is of utmost important as it gives the information of all the amendments which a tax payer have effected for the period from 01.07.2017 to 31.03.2018 in GSTR-1 filed for the period from 01.4.2018 to 30.09.2018
Table-10 deals with supplies value and there tax effect which have positive impact.
Table-11 deals with supplies value and there tax effect which have negative impact.
Table-12 deals with only ITC which have positive impact.
Table-13 deals with only ITC which have negative impact.
Table -14 is the net tax payable that arises of the net adjustment of Table 10 & 11.
PART VI of GSTR-9 Annual Return under GST deals with the other information of the tax payer
Table-15 A to G deals with the information on account of refund & demand. Important point to be noted here is that it deals only with the GST demand & refund that is confirmed and that too claimed and sanctioned as on 31.03.2018and not thereafter.
Table-16A deals with supplies from composition dealer.
Table 16B deals with the situation of deemed supply, when input and capital goods are sent to job worker and the same are not received back within stipulated time (1 year for input and 3 years for capital goods). Information under this section is NIL as the said limitation period is not going to lapsed as on 31.03.2018.
Table-16C deals with the situation where goods sent on approval basis but not returned.
Table-17 requires the HSN details of outward supplies which can be extracted from monthly GSTR-1 filed for the period from July 2017 to March.2018.
Table-18 requires the HSN details of inward supplies which is nowhere in the returns already filed by the taxpayers till now and as such lot of digging of data from books of accounts is required for getting the said information, which is not going to be an easy affair in the days to come.
Table-19 talks about the late fee if any payable & paid by the tax payer in respect of late filing of Annual Return.
After analyzing GSTR -9 Return in detail, we come to the conclusion that GSTR-9 is merely the consolidation of GSTR-3B & GSTR-1 data which a tax payer has already submitted to the department till the filing of GSTR-1 & GSTR-3B returns for the month of September 2018. The data which is required to be filled in GSTR-9 is on “as is basis”. i.e. it doesn’t allow any modification which a taxpayer might have noticed later on. But in some points as discussed above some extra digging of data is required which in fact is a challenging job, as in earlier data declared in GSTR-1 & GSTR-3B there was no requirement of reporting such data.
Another disturbing point to be noticed here is that if no new information is required to be reported in at the time of filing of GSTR-9, why can’t the same could have been done by the Government on its own by passing the instructions to GSTN as the data which government is asking for capturing and summarizing the same in the Form GSTR-9 ,is already available with them.
Further if a tax payer has noticed that values as declared in GSTR-3B & GSTR-1 are not matching with the books of accounts at the time of filing of GSTR-9 than it might result into difference in value of tax payable and tax paid, than how one can deal with that situation remain unanswered till now.
We are paying huge fees to Auditors for Auditing the books and filing Income Tax return. For filing GSTR 9 and GSTR 9A also we will have to pay huge fees to the Auditors. Hence, filing of GSTR 9 and 9A may please be allowed to file oursellves without
Auditors approval.
Please take up this matter immediately with Govt. and simplify it so that Auditing can not be a burden on Companies.
Regards,