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A Composition taxpayer may now file NIL statement in Form GST CMP-08 for a quarter, through an SMS, apart from filing it through online mode, on GST Portal. 1.To file NIL Form GST CMP-08 through SMS, the taxpayer must fulfil following conditions: Taxpayer must be registered as composition taxable person (by filing Form GST REG-01) or the taxpayer might have opted for composition levy (by filing Form GST CMP-02). Taxpayer must have filed all the applicable statement(s) in Form GST CMP-08 for the previous quarter(s). Authorized signatory and his/ her phone number must be registered on the GST Portal. There must not be any data in save stage, in online version of Form GST CMP-08, on the GST Portal. 2.NIL Form CMP-08 for a tax period must be filed by the taxpayer, if there is no: Outward Supplies; liability due to reverse charge (including import of services); and other tax liability for the quarter, for which the statement is being filed. 3.Steps to File Nil Form GST CMP-08 through SMS ar...

The facility to file GSTR 3B and GSTR-1 with the EVC in lieu of DSC extended to the registered person, who are also registered under the Companies Act, 2013, shall be withdrawn w.e.f. 1st Nov. 2020.  However, facility to file NIL returns through OTP verification, shall be continued for all types of registered persons in view of notification 58/2020- dated 1st July 2020. Source: www.gst.gov.in Disclaimer: TaxAvant is meant purely for the educational purpose of Tax Laws and Regulatory Updates. It contains only general information. It is not professional advice and should not be treated as such. This Blog should not be substituted for professional advice. For Specific Queries, please post in the comments section.

In terms of Rule 138 E (b) of the CGST Rules, 2017, the E Way Bill generation facility of a person is liable to be restricted, in case the person fails to file their GSTR-3B returns, for a consecutive period of two months or more. As you might be aware that the GST Council in its last meeting has decided that this provision will be made applicable for the taxpayers whose Aggregate Annual Turn Over (AATO, PAN based) is more than Rs 5 Crores.   Thus, if the GSTIN associated with the respective PAN (with AATO over Rs 5 Cr.) has failed to file their GSTR-3B Return for 02 or more tax periods, up to the month of tax period of  August, 2020, their EWB generation facility will be blocked on the EWB Portal.  Please note that the EWB generation facility for such GSTINs (whether as consignor or consignee or by transporter) will be blocked on EWB Portal after 15th October, 2020. To avail continuous EWB generation facility on EWB Portal, Taxpayers are therefore advised to file yo...

The 42nd GST Council met under the Chairmanship of Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister Smt Nirmala Sitharaman through video conferencing on 5th October 2020. The meeting was also attended by Union Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs besides Finance Ministers of States & UTs and senior officers of the Ministry of Finance & States/ UTs. The GST Council has made the following recommendations: 1. Levy of Compensation Cess to be extended beyond the transition period of five years i.e. beyond June, 2022, for such period as may be required to meet the revenue gap. Further details to be worked out. 2. Centre is releasing compensation of ₹ 20,000 crore to States today towards loss of revenue during 2020-21 and an amount of about ₹ 25,000 crore towards IGST of 2017-18 by next week. 3. Enhancement in features of return filing:In its 39th Meeting held in March 2020, the Council had recommended an incremental approach to incorporate features of the new return sy...

‘E-Invoicing’ for certain classes of taxpayers has come into effect from 1-10-2020. Keeping in view the hardships faced by the taxpayers due to COVID-19 lockdown and as some of these taxpayers are still not ready, as a last chance, Government had given relaxation that invoices raised by notified taxpayers during October, 2020 without following e-invoice procedure (i.e. uploading invoice details on e-invoice portal (IRP), obtaining IRN and issuing invoice with QR Code) will be deemed to be valid and no penalty will be there if the IRN for such invoices is obtained within 30 days of date of invoice. Further, vide notifications (Central Tax) 70/2020 and 72/2020 dated 30-9-2020, certain amendments and additions were made in respect of e-invoicing. Below is the summary of amendments: Regarding aggregate turnover threshold, it was specified that those who crossed Rs. 500 Cr. in any preceding financial year from 2017-18 onwards, will be covered. Supplies for ‘exports’ are also specifically i...

I.Relief to Composition Taxpayers in late fees for delayed filing of Form GSTR-4 (Quarterly Return): Vide Notification No 67/2020 dated 21.09.2020, the taxpayers who were under Composition Scheme, during any period till 31st March, 2019, have been provided relaxation in payment of late fees, on filing Form GSTR-4 (Quarterly Return). This relaxation is available, if Form GSTR-4 (Quarterly Return) is filed by them, between 22nd Sept., 2020 and 31st Oct., 2020, for any tax period of financial year 2017-18 or 2018-19. The details are as given below: II.Relief in late fees for delayed filing of Final Return in Form GSTR-10 Vide Notification No 68/2020 dated 21.09.2020, the taxpayers who had failed to file final return, in Form GSTR-10, by due date, have been provided relaxation in payment of late fees, on filing of Form GSTR 10 (Final Return). Such taxpayers can now file Form GSTR 10 (Final Return) between 22nd Sept., 2020 and 31st Dec., 2020, by paying a maximum late fee of Rs 500 (Rs 25...

1. An offline tool has been made available to the taxpayers to match Input Tax Credit (ITC), as auto populated in their Form GSTR-2B, with their purchase register. This tool will help the taxpayer to compare their ITC as per their Purchase Register, with the ITC as shown available in their auto drafted Form GSTR-2B and thus help them to claim correct ITC, while filing Form GSTR-3B. 2. To use the Matching Offline Tool, taxpayer need to : Download and Install the Offline tool on their system Download the Form GSTR-2B JSON file from the GST portal Prepare purchase register in the template provided with offline tool Total number of documents to match should be preferably be less than 3000 in number. 3. Steps to use the utility: Download the utility from GST common portal by navigating to Downloads>Offline Tools> Matching Offline Tool Open the tool. Following boxes are displayed on Offline tool dashboard page: GSTR-2B Import Purchase Register (PR) Matching Result Import GSTR-2B JSON f...

The GSTN Portal has now done away with the mandatory requirement of linking of credit notes with Invoices Nos. issued by the Supplier while filing of GSTR-1, GSTR-6 or Filing of Refunds. Till now, original invoice number was mandatorily required to be quoted by the taxpayers, while reporting a Credit Note or Debit Note in Form GSTR-1 or Form GSTR-6. The taxpayers have now been provided with a facility on the GST Portal to: Report in their Form GSTR-1 or in Form GSTR-6, single credit note or debit note issued in respect of multiple invoices Choose the note supply type as Regular, SEZ, DE, Export etc., to identify the table to which such credit note or debit note pertains Indicate Place of Supply (POS) against each credit note or debit note, to identify the supply type i.e. Intra-State or Inter-State Debit /Credit Notes can be declared with tax amount, but without any taxable value also i.e. if credit note or debit note is issued for difference in tax rate only, then note value can be re...

A PDF statement has been made available to taxpayers, filing monthly GSTR-1 statement, with system computed values of Table 3 of Form GSTR-3B. This PDF will be prepared on the basis of the values reported by them, in their GSTR-1 statement, for the said tax period. Note: This facility will also be provided to quarterly GSTR-1 filers in due course of time. This PDF will be available on their GSTR-3B dashboard, from tax period of August 2020 onwards, containing the information of GSTR-1 filed by them on or after 4th September 2020. This will make filing of their Form GSTR-3B easier for them. This facility is provided to all taxpayers registered as a Normal taxpayer, SEZ Developer, SEZ unit and casual taxpayer. Tables of Form GSTR 3B will be Auto-Drafted in PDF statement : Following Tables of Form GSTR-3B will be auto drafted, on basis of values reported in GSTR-1 statement, for the said period: 3.1(a) - Outward taxable supplies (other than zero rated, nil rated and exempted) 3.1(b) - Ou...

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) has recently enabled new functionalities for Taxpayers liable to file GSTR-8 as well as for Composition Taxpayers effecting supplies through E-Commerce Operators in the wake of Covid-19.These Changes aims at easing the process of furnishing of Return under Form GSTR-8 by the E-Commerce Operators.Detailed Explanation of the Changes is as follows: Provision to make amendment, multiple times, in Table 4 of Form GSTR-8 Earlier, if no action was taken on TCS details, auto-populated in TDS/TCS credit form, by the supplier or if the same were rejected by them in the said form, the TCS (e-commerce operators) could amend the details only once. Based on requests received from stakeholders, the restriction of amending the transaction details only once, in the table 4 (i.e. amendment table) of Form GSTR-8, has now been removed. Thus, details of table 4 (i.e. amendment table) of Form GSTR-8, can now be amended multiple times, by e-commerce op...

Covid-19 Pandemic is being dubbed as the worst disaster of this century so far which has resulted in forced lock down measures across the globe. Every business sector barring few have been affected by this Pandemic causing a serious dent in their cash flows and profits. In India, Central Government forced the nationwide lock down on 24th March. However,various relief to businesses were announced by government as part of their AatmaNirbhar (Self-Reliant) Bharat (India). On similar lines, CBIC (Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs) has announced relief measures pertaining to GST law and compliance to help businesses. These relief measures range from Relaxations & Extensions in Return Filing as well as regarding applicability of certain provisions under GST Law.This article covers all such measures in detail. Relaxations & Extensions given in Filing Dates of GSTR-3B (Notification No.54/2020-CT dated 24th June 2020) For Taxpayers having Aggregate Turnover > Rs.5 Cr in ...

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) has notified vide instruction no.CBEC-20/06/11/2020-GST dated 17th July 2020 to dispose of all pending applications of Registration on or before 30th July 2020 as a "special drive". Sub-Section 10 of Section 25 of CGST Act, 2017 read with Rule 9 of CGST Rules, 2017 provides that Application of Registration shall be deemed as approved after a period of three working days if the proper officer fails to take any action on the said application within the said period of three working days. Strong apprehensions were raised on the possible misuse of the deeming provision during the COVID lockdown period, where either the central/state tax offices were closed or were functioning with skeletal staff. Since lockdown applied across all establishments including those belonging to the Governments (Central and State), during the lockdown period there being no "working days", it had been decided that the approval of the ap...

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) as part of the Government of India's (GOI) Covid-19 relief measures brought in a number of notifications to ease out the Compliance burden on the Taxpayers in the Current times of Pandemic. With Business Activities disrupted due to Several Lockdowns imposed as part of tackling the Coronavirus Crises, These measures were announced to offer some respite to Taxpayers as they adjust to the new normal of Working from Home and other social distancing measures. Several Notifications were issued in this regard and few more expected in the coming times. These notifications primarily aim at extending the timelines of compliances so that businesses can accomplish their compliances without any penal provisions enforced upon them. CBIC has extended timelines for Compliances such as filing of Details of Outward Supplies reported under Section 37 in form GSTR-1 , Return of Inward and Outward Supplies, Input Tax Credit availed, tax payable a...