GST News

 

Under Section 69A, when an accountant or any other person is required by the Commissioner of Income Tax to file returns and disclosures under the provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (including any other Act), they shall file, within 45 days from the receipt of notice under Section 69A, their return, if they are taxable, or information of the same if they are not.

In addition, for all persons, except the registrar and the deputy commissioner, specified under Section 135, and those engaged in trade or business under Section 37, any person who fails to file returns and disclosures within 45 days from the due date of the statutory filing (registration and filing) shall, with respect to such returns, be liable to pay penalty, levied as specified under Section 45B and 45C, of the prescribed rates of the government for which the return or disclosure has been filed.

There is also a provision for filing an information return without filing a return. Under Section 69A, any person who, by registration or filing of return or disclosure, is required by the Commissioner to file an information return or disclosure, is exempt from tax and shall not be liable to pay any tax or a penalty, or to be jailed for any period of imprisonment or to be prosecuted for any such offence.

So, whether you want to fill your GST return for the previous quarter or the entire year, just submit a GST return for the previous quarter. Moreover, for the GST filing of the fiscal 2018 (2019) and the annual return for the financial year 2018, you need not file a tax return for the entire fiscal year 2018, but you need to file only one return for the entire financial year.

Related: When Do You File Your GST Return For FY2017-18?

What Should You File For The Previous Quarters?

For the periods of July 2018 to September 2018:

If you want to file a return under the GST laws for the year 2018 (FY2019) and the fiscal 2017-18, you need to file a return, namely Form GST Return 1 for the quarters ended December 2018, March 2019, July 2019, and September 2019, respectively, which is filed online using the GST services portal of the GST council.

If you want to file a return for any fiscal year 2018 (FY2019), you need to file a return under Section 69A, where the applicant is entitled to get credit of tax paid for a particular fiscal year (FY) (i.e. for the financial year 2018 (FY2018), the applicant is eligible to get the credit of tax paid only from the filing of a return on behalf of the taxpayers who filed their tax returns or disclosures for FY2018) for the financial year 2017-18. The credit, if any, would be of the taxes paid on goods and/or services sold or provided by them to the person or other persons who made the purchases, if the supplies of goods and/or services in FY2018 for the purposes specified in the Statement of Inventory or Form 53, Qualified Sales Return, for the quarter in which the taxpayer makes the sale or supply is excluded from the purview of the IGST tax (as prescribed in Section 53(3) of the CGST Act, 2017).

The form can also be submitted through the GST offices. But the return, if submitted through the offices, needs to be submitted by the registered tax payer to the commissioner, and not to the tax commissioner.

It is only after the government gets the correct answer in the return form (after checking the correctness of all the provisions and disclosures made by the applicant) that the commissioner issues a notification in respect of the taxpayers. This would be the release notice of taxpayers. There will be no validity of the order for the taxpayer after the release notice has been issued. In this case, if the applicant has filed his return for the financial year 2018 (FY2018), then the applicant is eligible to get credit of tax paid during the financial year 2017-18, which will be deemed as refund of taxes paid on that particular financial year.

If the credit is not given to the taxpayer in the refund release, then only the tax credit on filing a valid, accurate and properly formatted and filed return can be considered as refund or tax credit. It is, however, necessary for the applicant to file the GST return for the fiscal year 2017 (FY2017), in order to get refund or credit for the financial year 2017.

So, in this case, only the taxpayer must file the returns. Once he files the return, the applicability of Section 69A (for all the prior fiscal years) and the law for the credit of tax paid on the filing of returns for FY2017 will only be applicable in the period of filing the return.

A taxpayer cannot file the return during the period of filing the return for FY2017 (for all the prior fiscal years). For all the prior fiscal years, the tax credit shall be given only to the taxpayers who have filed the tax return on or before the 31st day of October 2018 (for all the prior fiscal years), by filing the corresponding return (Form GST Returns 1).

If the tax credit is not given to a taxpayer, then only the tax credit on filing the return would be applicable. However, the tax credit can be claimed for only up to the tax paid in the last quarter, during the financial year for which the returns were filed in the relevant financial year (FY2018).

A taxpayer, in this case, needs to file his return for the financial year 2018 (FY2018) and pay any GST on goods or services purchased or provided by him, which are eligible for the relief. This return would be filed in accordance with the instructions issued by the tax department.