Features of GST Simplified Quarterly Return Form

Features of GST Simplified Quarterly Return Form

The GST Council in its 28th GST Council Meeting held on 21 July 2018 under the Chairmanship of Shri Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Railways, Coal, Finance & Corporate Affairs has approved the new return formats. The Council had earlier approved the basic principles of GST return design and directed the law committee to finalize the return formats and changes in the law.

In pursuance thereof, the CBIC has placed Note on draft GST simplified returns and return formats in public domain on 30 July 2018 for perusal and feedback of stakeholders. The Note on the draft format of GST simplified return contains two parts i.e. Part – A which specifies the Key features of Monthly Return and Part – B which specifies the Key features of Quarterly Return in GST.

So, let us discuss the features of the new Simplified Quarterly Return.

Key features of the new and Simplified Quarterly Return (GSTR) are as follows:

Quarterly filing and monthly payments:

• It is proposed to provide the facility for the filing of the simplified quarterly return to small taxpayers, who had a turnover up to Rs. 5 Cr.
• However, they would still need to pay their taxes on the monthly basis and avail input tax credit on self-declaration basis to pay the monthly taxes.
• Option for filing the simplified monthly return or simplified quarterly return shall be taken from these small taxpayers at the beginning of the year. During the course of the year option to change from monthly to quarterly or vice-versa shall be allowed only once and at the beginning of any quarter.

Options in simplified quarterly return:

• Quarterly return shall be similar to the monthly return. Except that it has been simplified and shall not have the compliance requirement in relation to –

1. Missing and pending invoices as small taxpayers do not use these procedures in their inventory management.
2. Supplies such as non-GST supply, exempted supply etc as they do not create any liability.
3. The details of input tax credit on capital goods credit shall also not be required to be filled.

Simplified Quarterly Return:

• Option to create the profile in the quarterly return shall also be available. Sahaj and Sugam are predetermined profiles of the quarterly return.

Sahaj and Sugam Returns:

• Taxpayers having turnover up to Rs. 5cr, constitute a very large part of the tax base. Therefore two simplified quarterly returns are proposed for them respectively. They have been named as “Sahaj” (only B2C outward supplies) and “Sugam” (both B2B and B2C outward supplies).

HSN:

• HSN wise details would need to be provided at 4 digit level or more in the quarterly return.

Pending and missing invoices:

• Quarterly return shall not have the compliance requirement of missing and pending invoices. As small businesses do not use these procedures in their inventory.