GST Returns
Two returns carry the weight every month. GSTR-1 is the statement of what you sold, invoice by invoice. GSTR-3B is the summary on which tax is actually paid. Both are prepared from the same books, so when they disagree, one of them is wrong.
Due dates, turnover thresholds and late fees are revised by notification. The structure described here is stable; the specific dates and figures are the position at the time of writing. Check the current notification on the GST portal before you rely on a number, and take your auditor's view on anything that decides a filing.
Who files what
What you must file follows from how you are registered, and from your turnover.
| Return | Who files it | Covers |
|---|---|---|
| GSTR-1 | Every regular registered person | Outward supplies, invoice by invoice |
| GSTR-3B | Every regular registered person | Summary of outward tax, ITC and tax payable |
| GSTR-4 | Composition dealers | An annual return in place of the monthly pair |
| GSTR-5 | Non-resident taxable persons | Supplies made during the registration period |
| GSTR-6 | Input service distributors | Credit received and distributed |
| GSTR-7 | Those deducting TDS under GST | Tax deducted on notified supplies |
| GSTR-8 | E-commerce operators | Tax collected at source on supplies through the platform |
| GSTR-9 / 9C | Regular persons above the notified turnover | The annual return and the reconciliation statement |
A person registered under the QRMP scheme files quarterly but pays monthly. The turnover limit for QRMP and the staggered due dates have both been revised — confirm the current position rather than assuming last year's.
When each one is due
Almost every GST due date is a day of the month rather than a date in the year, which makes the calendar easier to hold than it looks. The pattern is that the statement of supplies comes first and the payment return follows, so that the buyer's credit is populated before the seller settles his own liability.
The dates below are the standing positions in the rules. Individual months are extended by notification often enough that a due date should be confirmed for any period where the filing is close to the line.
- The GSTR-4 date moved from 30 April to 30 June, so material written before the change states the earlier date and is not wrong for the years it was written about.
- The two GSTR-3B quarterly dates split the country into two groups; which group a registration sits in follows from the state of registration and does not change month to month.
- A quarterly filer under QRMP still pays every month through PMT-06. The return is quarterly; the money is not.
- Where a due date falls on a holiday there is no general rule shifting it, so the portal remains open and the return remains due.
| Return | Period | Due |
|---|---|---|
| GSTR-1 | Monthly | 11th of the following month |
| IFF — invoice furnishing facility | First two months of a quarter, optional, QRMP only | 13th of the following month |
| GSTR-1 | Quarterly, under QRMP | 13th of the month following the quarter |
| GSTR-3B | Monthly | 20th of the following month |
| GSTR-3B | Quarterly, under QRMP | 22nd or 24th of the month following the quarter, depending on which group of states and union territories the registration falls in |
| PMT-06 | First two months of a quarter, QRMP only | 25th of the following month — a payment challan, not a return |
| CMP-08 | Quarterly, composition dealers | 18th of the month following the quarter |
| GSTR-4 | Annual, composition dealers | 30 June following the end of the financial year |
| GSTR-5 | Monthly, non-resident taxable persons | 13th of the following month, or within seven days of the registration expiring, whichever is earlier |
| GSTR-6 | Monthly, input service distributors | 13th of the following month |
| GSTR-7 | Monthly, TDS deductors | 10th of the following month |
| GSTR-8 | Monthly, e-commerce operators | 10th of the following month |
| GSTR-9 | Annual, regular taxpayers | 31 December following the end of the financial year |
| GSTR-9C | Annual, above the notified turnover | 31 December, filed along with GSTR-9 |
There is now an outer bar on filing at all. A return furnished more than three years after its own due date is barred, and the portal will not accept it. Old periods left open in the hope of tidying them later stop being fixable at that point, and the liability does not go away with the ability to declare it.
GSTR-1 — the statement of outward supplies
Filed invoice by invoice for registered buyers, and in summary for the rest. Your buyer's input tax credit is built from what you report here, so an invoice omitted from GSTR-1 is credit the buyer cannot take. That is why a GSTR-1 mistake usually surfaces as a phone call from a customer rather than a notice from the department.
| Table | What it reports |
|---|---|
| 4 — B2B | Supplies to a registered person, per invoice, with the recipient's GSTIN |
| 5 — B2CL | Inter-state supplies to an unregistered person above the notified invoice value, per invoice |
| 6 — Exports / SEZ | Zero-rated supplies, with or without payment of tax, and the shipping bill where there is one |
| 7 — B2CS | All remaining supplies to unregistered persons, summarised by rate and place of supply |
| 8 — Nil / exempt / non-GST | Values of nil-rated, exempt and non-GST supplies, reported separately |
| 9 — Amendments | Corrections to invoices reported in an earlier period |
| 9B — Credit and debit notes | Notes against registered and unregistered recipients |
| 12 — HSN summary | Quantity and value by HSN code and rate |
| 13 — Documents issued | Serial ranges of invoices, notes and delivery challans issued |
Nil-rated, exempt and non-GST are three different things and are reported in three different columns, even though all three print as 0% on an invoice. Nil-rated means the tariff sets the rate at zero; exempt means it is taxable in principle but excused by notification; non-GST means it is outside the levy altogether, like petrol or alcohol for human consumption.
GSTR-3B — the summary on which tax is paid
No invoice detail. Outward tax in one block, credit in another, and the difference paid in cash. Because it is a summary, it is possible to file a 3B that quietly disagrees with the GSTR-1 filed for the same month — which is exactly what the annual reconciliation later picks up.
| Box | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| 3.1(a) | Taxable outward supplies, other than zero-rated, nil-rated and exempt |
| 3.1(b) | Zero-rated supplies — exports and supplies to an SEZ |
| 3.1(c) | Nil-rated and exempt outward supplies |
| 3.1(d) | Inward supplies on which you, the recipient, owe tax under reverse charge |
| 3.1(e) | Non-GST outward supplies |
| 3.2 | Of 3.1(a), the part supplied to unregistered persons, composition dealers and UIN holders, state by state |
| 4(A) | Input tax credit available — imports, reverse charge, ISD and all other ITC |
| 4(B) | Credit to be reversed — rules 42 and 43, and anything else |
| 4(C) | Net credit available, being 4(A) less 4(B) |
| 4(D) | Credit that is ineligible in the first place |
| 5 | Values of exempt, nil-rated and non-GST inward supplies |
| 6.1 | Payment of tax — how the liability was met, in credit and in cash |
How credit is set off, and why the order matters
Credit cannot be applied to whichever liability you please. Sections 49, 49A and 49B with rule 88A fix the order, and following it decides how much cash actually leaves the bank.
- IGST credit is used first. Against IGST liability, then against CGST and SGST in any proportion you choose.
- CGST credit may then be used against CGST, and any balance against IGST.
- SGST credit may be used against SGST, and any balance against IGST.
- CGST credit can never pay SGST, and SGST credit can never pay CGST.
- Compensation cess credit pays only cess.
Spending CGST credit before IGST credit can leave an IGST balance that has nothing left to pay, and a cash payment that was avoidable. The order is not a formality.
Reconciling GSTR-1 with GSTR-3B
The outward tax in table 3.1 should agree with the tax across the GSTR-1 tables for the same period. Where it does not, the cause is usually one of a short list.
- An invoice raised but not yet posted, so it is in neither return.
- A credit note dated in one period against an invoice from another.
- An invoice amended between the two returns being prepared.
- A supply classified as exempt in one place and taxable in the other.
- Reverse-charge tax counted as outward tax — it belongs in 3.1(d), not 3.1(a).
A difference that is left unexplained does not go away. It surfaces in GSTR-9 and again in GSTR-9C, by which time the period is closed and the correction is harder.
Late fees and interest
Missing a date costs two separate things, computed in two different ways, and it is worth keeping them apart. A late fee is charged for filing the return late and has nothing to do with how much tax was due. Interest is charged for paying the tax late and has nothing to do with the return.
The late fee runs per day of delay, from the day after the due date until the return is filed, and is charged under each Act separately — so a delay costs the CGST amount and the SGST amount together, and the figure quoted in a table is usually one of the two. A lower daily rate applies to a nil return, and the total is capped by reference to turnover, with the cap stepped so that a small taxpayer is not charged like a large one. Both the daily amount and the caps have been reduced by notification more than once, and the annual return carries its own scale, so take the current figures rather than a remembered one.
Interest is charged under section 50, read with rule 88B, on the tax that is actually paid in cash. That qualification does the real work: where a return is filed late but the liability was covered by credit already sitting in the electronic credit ledger, interest is confined to the cash portion. It runs from the day after the due date to the date the amount is debited, and it is computed on a daily basis at the notified annual rate.
A higher rate applies where credit has been wrongly availed and used. Here too the trigger is utilisation rather than the claim: credit taken in error and reversed before it was ever set against a liability does not attract interest, while credit that was used does, from the date of utilisation until it is reversed or paid back. Both rates are set by notification and should be confirmed before a computation is relied on.
- The late fee is computed by the portal and must be discharged before the return can be filed, so an unpaid fee blocks the filing and the delay compounds.
- A late fee on GSTR-1 delays your buyer's credit as well, since the fee is what stands between the statement and the filing.
- There is no late fee on GSTR-3B for a period in which nothing was payable, but a nil return still attracts the nil-return fee if it is filed late.
- Interest is not waived because the delay was short or the cause was the portal. Relief for a particular period comes by notification, if at all.
The commonest surprise is interest on a return filed on time but paid late — the two are separate events, and a return cannot be filed without payment, so what usually happens is that the whole filing slips and the fee and the interest arrive together.
What goes wrong most often
In the order a practitioner meets them.
- Place of supply taken from the billing address when the goods went somewhere else — CGST and SGST charged where IGST was due, or the reverse.
- An exempt product left on a taxable classification, so its value lands in the wrong table.
- The HSN summary filed at fewer digits than the turnover requires.
- Credit claimed on an invoice the supplier never filed, so it never reaches GSTR-2B.
- A credit note issued after the deadline for the supply it relates to, leaving the tax unrecoverable.