For the month of March’18, GSTR 3B needs to be filed by 20th April’18. Considering the fact that this is the first closing year in GST, assessee should take care of the following points before GST returns are filed for Mar’18. Further, this is also important from the perspective of GST Annual Returns and GST Audit (Reconciliation) to be carried out FY 17-18 on or before 31st December, 2018.
1. Transition Credit:
For the GST transition credit availed on the closing balance of ST, VAT and stock assessee needs to make sure required entries are passed in the financial records. In case of Closing balance of Service tax Credit carried forward, CGST Ledger should be debited whereas in case of VAT credit carried forward, SGST Ledger needs to be debited. Further, excise credit availed on stock for which invoice is available should be debited to CGST Account and credited to Inventory.
2. Turnover:
The Assessee needs to make sure that consolidated turnover for the period July’17 to Mar’18 matches with GSTR 3B and GSTR 1. In case of any differences or instances where turnover was not disclosed earlier, then the same should be disclosed in Mar’18. For the delay in payment of tax, assessee may opt for payment of interest.
3. GST Liability appearing as on 31st Mar’18
GST liability appearing in books as on 31st Mar’18 should be matched to GST liability paid or to be paid in Apr’18. The liability of CGST, SGST and IGST should be individually tallied and not on consolidated basis. Difference if any needs to be reconciled. Further, break up of GST liability i.e., CGST, SGST and IGST should be shown separately in the financials. In case assessee is having registration in more than one state then the GST liability needs to be grouped State wise at the time of preparing consolidated financial statements.
4. Credit Balance as per Electronic Credit Ledger:
In case if input tax credit is more than tax payable for the month of Mar’18 then the same should be shown as recoverable in the books and should be matched with the balance appearing in the Electronic Credit Ledger as per the GST Portal. Closing balance of Input tax credit should form part of the financials under Current Assets.
5. Cash Balance as per Electronic Cash Ledger:
Amount available in Electronic Cash Ledger, if any should be first utilized for payment of tax for Mar’18. In case if the same cannot be utilized then it should be carried forward to FY 18-19. This balance should also appear in the financials under Current Assets.
6. Excess Tax Paid:
In case if any tax is paid inadvertently then the same can be adjusted against actual tax liability. However, in case if tax is collected wrongly from the customer then it needs to be completely remitted to the Govt. and cannot be adjusted against other liability.
7. Unavailed Input Tax Credit:
On detailed review of financials it can be observed that there is a very possibility that certain credits are missed out esp. in cases where the vendor would not have issued tax invoice immediately. Generally assessee’s miss out availing credit on Bank Charges, Loan Processing charges, Insurance (other than employees), expenses debited directly to prepared expenses, capital goods, credit card commission, courier charges etc. It is suggested to carry out a detailed review of all expenses and purchases to identify such instances. Any instances of unavailed credit needs to be accounted only in Mar’18 as GST returns for earlier periods would have already been filed. Further, GST law provides an option to claim unavailed credit in the following period upto September following the financial year.
8. Late filing fees and Interest:
Considering the present GSTR 3B system which automatically populates payment challan including late filing fees, there is high possibility that such payments may have been debited directly to GST liability account instead of debiting it to rates and taxes.
9. GST Credit of tax paid under RCM.
Unlike the erstwhile ST law where credit of ST paid under RCM was available only at the time of payment, under GST there is no such restriction as the same can be availed immediately. Accordingly, credit for GST paid for Mar’18 should be availed in March itself. Detailed verification of RCM payments upto Mar’18 and corresponding credit of it needs to be carried out.
10. GSTR 2A:
Although the Govt. has temporarily suspended matching of credit and filing of GSTR 2, assessee will be still required to download GSTR 2A and consolidated upto Mar’18 to check:
a. Whether all vendors have uploaded their invoices
b. Whether credit of other locations or third party is appearing
c. Identify instances where vendor has uploaded its invoice, however assessee has missed availing credit of it.
With the limited time available for filing GSTR 3B for Mar’18, assessee may opt for paying approximate tax liability by 20th Apr’18 however GST returns may be filed after carrying out the above check points. Although there may be late filing fee of Rs. 50 per day, the above exercise will be helpful to avoid any major issues to crop up during the audit and assessments.
Author of this article is a Practicing Chartered Accountant from Bangalore and can be reached at pankaj.r@rvkassociates.com
Author Bio
THANK YOU SIR FOR SHARING THE INFORMATION.
i miss my rcm on gta from aug17 till aug 18, can now i pay all together in sep gst3b & avail itc
I missed to claim Input Gst on some invoices and i found subsequently, I am going to claim Input on the same by september 2018, What are the Accounting entries to be passed on March and on September.
For ex:
My actual input : Rs.2,00,000
As per GST Returns: Rs.1,50,000
Should i show entire Rs.2,00,000 as Input recoverable as on 31.03.2018 or only to the extent filed [ie; Rs.1,50,000] and remaining amount of Rs.50,000 to P&L
If i must show only Rs.1,50,000 then hoe to recognise remaining Rs.50,000 in Sep 2018.
If my credit as per books is more than credit availed in GSTR 3B Return in month of March,then can i carry forward my credit in Balance sheet and avail in April month return?The reason is a few Bills of vendors were received after we filed Return.
I am a NRI. My Indian bank charged me fees. And on top of that it charged GST. Really??? Taxes on fees charged???
Since I see some means of recovery, can I recover this nonsensical GST on the bank fees levied?
How to reconcile GST-2A with Input Tax credit shown in GST-3B, since some of the supplier is still having time to file there GSTR-1 return for Qtr-IV (JAN-MAR18) or for Mar18.
But cgst SGST cash balance available my ledger. I can use cash balance next April month
SALUTE YOUR EFFORTS,VERY HELPFUL TIPS- THANKS
we have imported goods from china through agent . i have invoice of agent on which he charges IGST of Rs/- 82000 but the same is not appearing in GSTR2A. This was happend in January 2018. Can i claim this input in March 2018 ?
Very nice!!
Excellent Post – timely need to check these items
Very useful article…..Thanks and keep updating us in future.
Very Helpul TIPS
In case of Reverse Charge, it is judicious to avail ITC only after disbursement of liability to Government, rather than availing it on provisional basis as per Sec-41 of CGST Act.
Thank u for your point related to GST.
VERY USEFUL TIPS
i wrongly entered SGST Rs
350000 instead ofRs.35000/now how I can revised it
Information is clear & very nice
munciple corp is not a govt dept
my credit ledger balance stands at rs 12500 whereas per my self evalution it stand for rs 4500…how to adjust this diffrence in value?
very Nice article , it is very useful to Mar-18 GSTR -3B filling .
A CONSULTING ENGINEERING FIRM PROVIDED THE CONSULTANCY SERVICES TO GOVT DEPARTMENT I.E. MUNICIPLE CORPORATIONS.
AS PER NOTIFICATION 12/2017 THE PURE SERVICE IS EXEMPT FROM GST HOWEVER THE FIRM HAS RAISED THE BILL WITH GST AND ALSO PAID THE GST.
NOW CAN U PLS REPLY THAT SERVICE PROVIDED TO THOSE DEPARTMENT IS EXEMPT OR NOT. AND IF IT IS EXEMPT CAN THE FIRM CLAIM REFUND FOR THE SAME AND WHAT WILL BE THE PROCESS.
Very good information & advice.Thanks!
How can a person tally turnover if a sale is missed in GSTR3B but the same is filled in GSTR1.
If i show it GSTR3B and pay taxes in mar 18, then what will be the effect of earlier filed GSTR1?? does it impact on GSTR3 of that month???