Importance and Guidance to File Annual Return GSTR 9 Form

Nov 29 , 2019 15 min read 1048 Views 0 Likes 0 Comments

It was on 1 July 2017, the whole nation heard the resonance of GST implementing in India. 'One Nation One Tax' policy was the essence of this all-new taxation policy which was announced to with the aim of lessening the burden from the shoulders of individual taxpayers as well as small, medium and large businesses. The system also aimed at extracting just the right amount of tax from the taxpayers.

GST filing is a far digitized and a simple tax filing mechanism. Details of profits, exemptions, supplies, salary and other relevant financial transactions are mentioned in a form while filing the returns. Among all the crucial returns GSTR 9 is the prominent return.

About Annual GSTR 9 Form

GSTR 9 is an annual GST compliance which is mandatory to be filed by each GST registered firm in the country. The form is a pile of details of every business transaction done by a firm during a financial year.

One needs to fill the details in annual GSTR 9 form with respect to the following heads:

Inward supplies of the business
Outward supplies
Amount of taxes paid
Details of input tax credit
Claimed tax refunds

Various forms are segregated under GSTR 9 based on the kind of business and its annual turnover. The list of forms is as follows:

GSTR 9 – Filing GSTR 9 Annual Form via Gen GST software can also be considered for every taxpayer who is filing GSTR 3B and GSTR 1.
GSTR 9A – Filing Form 9A is mandatory for taxpayers registered under the Composition Scheme of the government.
GSTR 9B – GSTR 9B is a mandatory compliance for those owning an e-commerce business and who have already filed GSTR 8 for the same year. Such dealers are also the deductors who deduct TDS.
GSTR 9C – Taxpayers with gross earnings beyond Rs. 2 Crores per year are required to file GSTR 9C. It is mandatory for such individuals to get their annual accounts audited and furnish the copy of audited financial reports to legal authorities.

Who Needs to File GSTR 9?

GSTR 9 is the annual return compliance mandatory for all registered taxpayers. However, some are exempt from the annual compliance of GSTR 9. Here is the list of those taxpayers:

Casual taxpayers - A GST registered dealer who doesn’t have a fixed place of business.
Composition Taxpayers (they are required to submit 9A)
Taxpayers paying TDS
Non-Resident Indians
Input Service Distributors

Points to Remember Before Filing GSTR 9

Accurate return filing is a must for every taxpayer. Here are some points to remember before filing GSTR 9:

For every registered taxpayer who is filing GSTR 9, it is mandatory to have a PAN.
GSTR 9 is filed by those who have an annual turnover of more than Rs. 20 Lakhs.
Filing Form GSTR 1 and GSTR 3B is important before filing GSTR 9 for the same financial year.
Records of the entire year’s financial transactions are required to be saved in the invoice form. Details include inter-state and intra-state transactions and non-GST supplies. The nature of supplies (B2B or B2C) and other supplies have to be specified in the invoices.

To be noted: Re-confirm all the details for accuracy before submitting form GSTR 9 as no changes can be done once the submit button is clicked by the filer. Keep in hand all the relevant documents like account books, financial reports, etc. before you start filling the details in the form. Ask for expert assistance for the process. Make sure the form is furnished before the due date to avoid penalties. The current due date to file GSTR 9 and GSTR 9C 31st December 2019. Delay in filing the form will invite CGST and STST charges together (100 + 100) total of Rs. 200 per day.

Guidance to File Annual Return GSTR 9 Online

Stated Below are the Steps to Accurately File GSTR 9:

Switch to the government’s official link gst.gov.in and insert your login credentials. Select Annual Returns on Returns dashboard.
From the ‘File Annual Return’ option select the financial year then click to ‘Prepare Online’.
Choose between ‘Annual Return’ and ‘Nil Return’. Click on Yes or No.
If no is selected, click on Next which will direct you to the GSTR 9 Annual Return page.
Download the file which includes the summary of GSTR 9, GSTR 1 and GSTR 3B.
Fill in the required information in the table under 4N, 5M, 7I, 6(O), 8A, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17 and 18
To fill details in the table Click on Title ➣ details pre-entered in GSTR 1 and GSTR 3B will appear automatically ➣ enter the current tax value in the cells.
Save the details by selecting ‘Yes’
Re-confirm the details in the draft of the GSTR 9 Form. Once the details are checked click on ‘Compute Liabilities’.
If there are no dues or late fees from your hand then there will appear a confirmation box.
Select the Authorised Signatory.
Click on File GSTR 9.

If there are errors or any other issue in the form then it will show a warning message. You can still go back and make the necessary changes in the form. Once the form is submitted then there are no chances of correcting the errors. The form will directly be rejected by the authorities.