New Delhi : The format for annual returns and audit is likely to be approved by the GST Council in its meeting on July 21 and industry expects that there could be some reconciliation with annual IT returns as the government aims to check tax evasion.
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) was rolled out on July 1, 2017, and this is the first year when businesses will have to file annual returns (GSTR-9) for 2017-18 fiscal by December 31, 2018. Also those businesses with turnover of more than Rs 2 crore will have to file audit reports along with the annual returns.
The revenue officers have prepared a draft of the annual returns form, which will be deliberated by the all-powerful GST Council chaired by Union Finance Minister and comprising state finance ministers as members, in its meeting on July 21. The GST Network, which manages the IT backbone for the new indirect tax regime will thereafter finalise the software to enable businesses to file the returns.
Tax experts said they expect the annual returns form to be in line with that in the erstwhile Value Added Tax (VAT) regime, with some columns for reconciliation with Income Tax returns and audit report. They expect the forms to be made available online by October, so that the returns could be filed within the December due date.
Deloitte India Partner M S Mani said: “Considering the fact that the key objective of GST is to expand the tax base, it is expected that the GST annual return would require some information related to annual accounts and income tax returns, in addition to the details which were required to be submitted in the erstwhile VAT annual returns”.
Sops for digital payments may be deferred
New Delhi: The Sushil Modi-led ministerial panel will recommend to the GST Council to defer by a year the proposal to incentivise digital payments under GST, citing revenue implications of doling out concessional tax rate. The panel, in its meeting on Sunday, has decided to wait for stabilisation of revenues under Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the new return filing systems in the current fiscal before considering differential GST rates for people making payments using the digital mode. Besides, another ministerial panel under Modi, on Reverse Charge Mechanism has decided to recommend powers to the GST Council to notify the registered persons who would come under RCM purview. The meetings of the two Group of Ministers (GoM) were held here on Sunday.
