Upcoming changes in GST return filing & GST online portal

Upcoming changes in GST return filing & GST online portal

GST has been the chest of confusion since its inception. With every new amendment & notification, Traders, Manufacturers etc. rides a roller coaster ride. This lockdown imposed by the government brought some stability & relaxations in this ride. This has given some time to the Government as well as registered & unregistered persons to understand the need of the time & improvements that needs to be made in the current system of filing. Multiple changes have already been brought in by the government in taxation statutes. Some of them are:

• Allowing E-Verification of Income Tax returns filed electronically for the AY-2015-16 to AY-2019-20 till 30^th September, 2020
• Running a campaign by CBDT from 20^th July, 2020 to 31^st July, 2020 for voluntary filing of Income Tax returns for AY-2019-20
• Allowing assesse to undergo one time compliance in respect of Income Tax return for AY-2019-20 in respect of which no further notice will be received from the department in future
• Extension of due date for filing GSTR-4 in respect of composition taxpayers till 31^st August, 2020

Since its inception in 2017, in the eye of the government, GST was supposed to be the ‘One Nation One Tax’. However in actual sense, Due to so many confusions, multiple amendments, technical glitches on the GSTN portal, assesse could not actually rip the benefits of these so called ease measures of this taxation regime. Since this lockdown period has given the government some time to think & implement the new changes, improvements that were needed, it is the correct time for assesse also to implement these changes in their business processes. After starting the economy slowly after leap of 4 months, it would be easy for government to implement these changes and easy for the taxpayers to accept these changes after such break. In the light of this, government is ready to bring some changes in the way of filing GST Returns in order to make it easy for the taxpayers to file the return. Although some of these changes were proposed earlier also but this time we pray that these beneficial changes would actually get implemented.

Changes proposed in GST Return filing:

1. Filing of NIL GSTR-1 & GSTR-3B through SMS:

This facility is already rolled out by the government from 08^th June 2020. This will be beneficial since it avoids time as well as cost of the assesse.

2. Showing status of filing of GSTR-3B by the supplier:

Till now, portal shows only status of filing of GSTR-1 by the supplier. This keeps the ambiguity with respect to the actual payment of the GST received by the supplier. Since input credit of the GST paid is allowed only if it is actually paid by the supplier, the ambiguity with respect to the payment can be reduced to some extent since there might be chances that status shown in respect of filing GSTR-3B could be of filing NIL GSTR-3B by the supplier.

3. Showing status of amendment of invoices with the month of amendment:

Till now, if invoice filed in GSTR-1 is amended, it was not showing it’s month of amendment due to which difficulty was arising in reconciliation of the invoices amended. This issue could be solved if this amendment is implemented.

4. Details of computation of invoices in Table 8A of GSTR-9:

Details in Table 8A of GSTR-9 are auto populated from the GSTR-1 filed by the supplier. Since the details in respect of these invoices are not available, reconciliation problem arises. This problem could be solved to some extent if details in respect of amount reflected in table 8A of GSTR-9 are given.

5. Reflection of Input credit of GST paid on Import:

Till now, Input credit of GST paid on import of goods or services was not getting reflected anywhere in the GSTR-2A. Now new statement in form GSTR-2B will be introduced in which details of input credit available on imports will be reflected.

6. New Statement of Input credit available – Form GSTR-2B:

New static statement of input credit available & not available in form GSTR-2B will be introduced. This statement will be generated on monthly basis & will be mailed to the registered mail ID of the assesse. The details in form GSTR-2B will be taken from GSTR-2A & it will be reflected in systematic manner where invoice wise input credit available & input credit not available will be bifurcated. Since the data reflected in GSTR-2A goes to the original tax period, it does not shows whether credit is available or not. Here all the credits available to the assesse including import, input service distributor etc. will be shown. This will bring ease in filing of form GSTR-3B.

7. Linking of GSTR-1 with GSTR-3B:

Till now much difficulty was arising if by any chance different turnover is shown in form GSTR-1 & GSTR-3B. Now these two forms will be linked together and liability calculated in form GSTR-3B will be linked to the invoices filed in form GSTR-1 of the assesse. This will avoid the difficulty in mismatching of turnover in forms GSTR-1 & GSTR-3B.

8. Linking of GSTR-2A & 2B with form GSTR-3B:

Input credit statement in form GSTR-2B will be introduced in which data from GSTR-2A will be pulled. This refined data in the form of GST credit available & GST credit not available will be then linked to the form GSTR-3B which will reduced the much talked difficulty of reconciliation of GSTR-2A.

9. Provisional Summary of GST Liability:

Provisional summary of GST liability payable based on the invoices filed in form GSTR-1 & input credit available in form GSTR-2B will be generated on monthly intervals based on which calculation sheet can be prepared by the assesse for filing GSTR-3B.

Since government is keen to implement the new changes for making filing of GST returns easy, these upcoming changes can be proved to be fruitful for business as well as professional community.

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