An Overview of Form GSTR 9 under Goods and Service tax

The much-awaited forms in form 9 series, form 9 and 9-A has been notified vide notification 39/2018 dt 4th Sep 2018.This enables the taxable persons to compile the data with a reconciliation of financials and for the auditors to prepare themselves about the approach. Now lets go through in detail with Annual return under GST.

1. What is GSTR-9?

GSTR 9 is an annual return to be filed once in a year by the registered taxpayers under GST including those registered under composition levy scheme. It consists of details regarding the supplies made and received during the year under different tax heads i.e. CGST, SGST and IGST. It consolidates the information furnished in the monthly/quarterly returns during the year.

2. Who should file GSTR-9?

All the registered taxable persons under GST must file GSTR 9. However, following persons are not required to file GSTR 9

1. Casual Taxable Person

2. Input service distributors

3. Non-resident taxable persons

4. Persons paying TDS under section 51 of GST Act.

3. What are different types of return under GSTR-9?

There are 4 types of return under GSTR 9:

GSTR 9: GSTR 9 should be filed by the regular taxpayers filing GSTR 1, GSTR 2, GSTR 3.

GSTR 9A – GSTR 9A should be filed by the persons registered under composition scheme under GST.

GSTR 9B – GSTR 9B should be filed by the e-commerce operators who have filed GSTR 8 during the financial year.

GSTR 9C – GSTR 9C should be filed by the taxpayers whose annual turnover exceeds Rs  2 crores during the financial year. All such taxpayers are also required to get their accounts audited and file a copy of audited annual accounts and reconciliation statement of tax already paid and tax payable as per audited accounts along with GSTR 9C.

4. When is GSTR-9 due?

GSTR-9 shall be filed on or before 31st December of the subsequent financial year.For instance for FY 2017-18, the due date for filing GSTR 9 is 31st December, 2018.

GSTR Form 9

Taxable persons other than ISD, TDS/TCS detectors, casual taxable person and a non-resident taxable person has to file the form.

Part-I of the form requires the name and GSTN number of the tax payer. Part II Details of outward and inward supplies, Part III requires ITC declared, part IV the tax payment, Part V requires the 17-18 transactions accounted in 18-19 (April’18 to Sep’18 return), Part VI requires the refund and tax demand detail, supplies received from composition taxpayers and deemed supply, HSN summary of inward supplies and outward supplies and late fee details.

GSTR Form 9A

Tax payer under composition has to file this form.

Part-I of the form requires the name and GSTN number of the tax payer. Part II Details of outward and inward supplies, part III the tax payment, Part IV requires the 17-18 transactions accounted in 18-19 (April 18 to Sep’18 return), Part V requires the refund and tax demand detail, credit availed and reversed and late fee details.

The above detail is to be provided from the returns filed from July 2017 to September 2018.The form is designed to capture auto populated data from the return already filed by the taxable person and their counter persons Auto fill the data which are already entered in the form itself, where the same is required again in other parts of the return.

Those taxable persons who have prepared the return with the detailed back up of data / statements and reconciliation done with GSTR2A with GSTR2 would find the form more comfortable in filing than the others who are yet to prepare.

Details to be provided in GSTR-9

GSTR 9 has total of 9 sections.

1. Provide GSTIN: Each taxpayer will be allotted a state-wise PAN-based 15-digit Goods and Services Taxpayer Identification Number (GSTIN). GSTIN of the taxpayer will be auto-populated at the time of return filing.

2. Legal name of the registered person: Name of the taxpayer will be auto-populated at the time of logging into the common GST Portal. 2(C) Whether liable to Statutory Audit: Statutory audit is compulsory in case of companies and in case of individual/HUF if turnover exceeds Rs 1 crore.

3. Date of statutory Audit: Mention the date of the statutory audit.

4. Auditors: Mention the name of the auditors of the entity who has audited the accounts of the entity.

5. Details of Expenditure: Details of goods and services purchased during the financial year must be provided. Such information needs to be provided along with the HSN/ SAC codes applicable and the taxable value of such goods and services. These details are mentioned in GSTR 2.

6. Details of income: Details of all supplies and sales made during the year needs to be provided here. Such details are also mentioned in GSTR 1.

7. Return Reconciliation Statement

After furnishing all the information, the system will auto-reconcile the transactions and will determine tax liability payable against the tax actually paid. The system will also populate the amount of tax difference, interest, penalty if any.

8. Other

If there is any other payable the same will be auto-populated here. It may include arrears or any liability because of the assessment.

9. Profit as per the Profit and Loss Statement: In this section, mention the breakup of gross-profit, profit after tax and net profit.

Once all the particulars are furnished correctly, the taxpayer is required to sign digitally either through a digital signature certificate (DSC) or Aadhar based signature verification to authenticate the return.

What is the Penalty for the late filing of GSTR-9 return?

Late fees for not filing the GSTR 9 within the due date is Rs. 100 per day per act up to a maximum of an amount calculated at a quarter percent of the taxpayer turnover in the state or union territory. Thus it is Rs 100 under CGST & 100 under SGST; total penalty is Rs 200 per day of default. There is no late fee on IGST.