Since the passage of the GST Bill in India, the Indian taxation system has been in a rapid development period. However, many people are still unsure about the application of GST to new-age firms.

If you’re new to the concept of GST, wondering what GSTR1 is, this article is here to help. The idea of GSTR 1 filing may be understood in the context of Goods and Services Tax compliances.

Read on to know how GSTR 1 becomes the foundation document.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

What is GSTR1?

When Must GSTR-1 be Filed?

Who is Required to Submit GSTR-1?

Penalties and Late Fees

How Can You Use Clear Tax GST Software to File GSTR-1?

FAQs

Summing Up

What is GSTR1?

GSTR-1 is a monthly or quarterly return that must be filed by every registered GST taxpayer, except for a few exceptions listed in the following sections.

It includes information on all exterior supplies, i.e. sales. The return is divided into 13 portions, which are as follows:

Tables 1, 2 & 3: GSTIN, legal and trade names, and aggregate turnover in the previous year.

Table 4: Taxable outward supplies to registered persons (including UIN-holders) excluding zero-rated supplies and deemed exports.

Table 5: Taxable outward inter-state supplies to unregistered persons where the invoice value is more than Rs.2.5 lakh.

Table 6: Zero-rated supplies as well as deemed exports.

Table 7: Taxable supplies to unregistered persons other than the supplies covered in table 5 (net of debit notes and credit notes).

Table 8: Outward supplies that are nil rated, exempted, and non-GST in nature.

Table 9: Amendments to outward supplies that are taxable and reported in tables 4,5 & 6 of the earlier tax periods' GSTR-1 return (including debit notes, credit notes, refund vouchers issued during the current period).

Table 10: Debit note, and credit note issued to unregistered person

Table 11: Details of advances received or adjusted in the current tax period or amendments of the information reported in the earlier tax period.

Table 12: Outward supplies summary based on HSN codes.

Table 13: Documents issued during the period.

GSTR-1 Filing Requirements

You must be a GST registered taxpayer with a 15-digit PAN-based GSTIN.

For all of your transactions, including intra-state and inter-state transactions, as well as business-to-business (B to B) and retail (B to C) sales, you must preserve detailed invoices with unique serial numbers.

This covers transactions involving exempted and non-GST items, as well as stock transfers between your company's locations in various states.

To authenticate your return using an EVC (electronic verification code) or a digital signing certificate, you will require an OTP from your registered phone (of class 2 or higher). You can also use an Aadhar-based e-sign to file your GST returns.

When Must GSTR-1 be Filed?

The GSTR-1 due dates are determined by your turnover. Businesses with up to Rs.5 crore in revenue have the option of filing quarterly reports under the QRMP scheme, which are due on the 13th of the month after the relevant quarter.

Those taxpayers who do not opt for the QRMP plan or have a total turnover of more than Rs.5 crore must file the return on or before the 11th of the following month.

The turnover limit was Rs.1.5 crore until December 2020, when the QRMP plan was implemented.

The turnover limit was Rs.1.5 crore until December 2020, when the QRMP plan was implemented.

See also CGST Notification No. 12/2021, dated May 1, 2021, and CGST Notification No. 17/2021, dated June 1, 2021.

Up to September 2020, quarterly GSTR-1s were required by the last day of the month following the relevant quarter.

Who is Required to Submit GSTR-1?

Whether or whether there are any transactions during the period, every registered person is obliged to submit GSTR-1.

There is a provision to file using an SMS for nil GSTR-1 filers that commenced in the first week of July 2020. The GSTR-1 is not required to be filed by the following registered persons:

• Input Service Distributors
• Composition Dealers
• Suppliers of online information and database access or retrieval services (OIDAR), who must pay tax themselves (as per Section 14 of the IGST Act)
• Non-resident taxable person
• Taxpayer liable to collect TCS
• Taxpayer liable to deduct TDS

How Should GSTR-1 be Revised?

Once a return has been submitted, it cannot be changed. Any errors in the return can be corrected in the GSTR-1 for the following period (month/quarter).

It implies that if an error is made in the GSTR-1 for June 2021, it can be corrected in the GSTR-1 for July 2021.

E-Way Billing

The newly introduced facility eliminates the necessity for taxpayers to provide specifications related to the e-way bill as defined in GSTR 3B. As a result, it enables taxpayers to input data in Form GSTR 1 for all invoices.

The information imported would contain the supplier's, receiver's, and invoice number. It also provides the invoice date, kind, and the number of products, as well as the HSN Code and other information.

In GSTR 1, the GST portal transmits the information and categorizes it into three categories. The categories are as follows:

• Consolidated supply statistics for Business to Business (B2B)
• Business to Consumer (B2C) (above Rs.2.5 lakhs)
• HSN (Harmonized System of Nomenclature Codes for Goods and Services)

Taxpayers who have more than 50 invoices but less than 500 may download the data from the sections in the 'CSV' file format.

The site allows you to import invoices into the GSTR1 offline tool. The person must provide adequate data and produce a JSON file for GSTR-1 submission.

If the number of invoices exceeds 500, the taxpayer can download the invoice data as a zip file from the GST portal's 'Return' Dashboard. The user can then unzip the file into three files and extract the information in Excel format.

The taxpayer must then add more invoices and fill out the other pages before uploading them to the offline tool.

Penalties and Late Fees

According to GST rules, the late fine for failing to file GSTR-1 is Rs. 200 per day of delay (Rs. 100 as per the CGST Act and Rs. 100 as per SGST Act). The late fee will be applied from the date after the due date.

However, according to announcements published up to February 2021, late fines are still paid at a reduced rate of Rs. 50 per day and Rs. 20 per day (for nil return).

It should be noted that the late fee on GSTR-1 is no longer being required as part of the payment challan in PMT-06 at the time of submitting GSTR-3B on the GST portal.

According to CGST announcement 20/2021 dated 1st June 2021, the maximum late fee is charged from June 2021 onwards.

Registered people who did not make any external shipments during the tax period are subject to a maximum late fine of Rs.500 (Rs.250 per Act).

Other than zero filers, registered people with total revenue of up to Rs.1.5 crore in the preceding fiscal year are subject to a maximum late charge of Rs.2,000 (Rs.1,000 per Act).

Registered people with aggregate yearly revenue of more than Rs.1.5 crore but less than Rs.5 crore in the preceding fiscal year, other than zero filers, can, on the other hand, be assessed a maximum late fee of Rs. 5,000. (Rs.2,500 per Act). The maximum late fee for taxpayers with total revenue of more than Rs.5 crore remains Rs.10,000.

However, the tax officer may issue a notice requesting a late charge for the period of delay at the time of return assessment.

How Can You Use Clear Tax GST Software to File GSTR-1?

Filing using Clear Tax GST Software is quick and easy. Here is a step-by-step instruction to filing GSTR-1 using ClearTax GST Software.

GST Advantage from Clear Tax

• Filing from beginning to end on a single portal using EVC or DSC
• Tally data may be imported with a single click.
• Import invoice data in any format using a proprietary mapper available only from ClearTax.
• Ensure that errors are corrected as soon as possible and that all returns are filed correctly.
• Track your company's filing status on a single dashboard.

FAQs

Should I submit GSTR-1 even if I have no sales each month?

Yes, submitting GSTR 1 is required. If your total sales for the year are less than Rs.5 crore, you can file the report quarterly. There is also an invoice supplying function provided to upload sales invoices monthly using this (for the first two months of the quarter).

Can I only attach an invoice when I file the return?

Invoices can be uploaded at any time. It is strongly encouraged that you post invoices at regular periods throughout the month to minimize mass uploads while filing your return. This is since mass uploading takes a long time.

Can I make changes to a bill that has been published to the GST Network?

After submitting bills, you can make modifications as many times as you like. There are no restrictions on amending invoices once they have been uploaded. However, you can only alter an invoice before making a refund. The numbers are frozen after they are submitted.

Can I file GSTR-1 even if I have already filed GSTR-3B?

GSTR-3B is a summary return that taxpayers must file every month ( or quarterly basis if QRMP scheme is chosen). GSTR-1 must be filed before submitting the GSTR-3B report beginning January 1, 2021. Before this date, a quarterly GSTR-1 filer would have filed his quarterly GSTR-1 at the end of the month following the quarter, after submitting GSTR-3B.

Can data already provided in GSTR-1 be amended? If this is the case, when will the deadline for filing modifications be?

Yes, you can make changes to a previously filed GSTR-1 for a certain tax period by reporting the changes in the return. For example, on August 30, 2020, Mr. X of Kerala sold products to Mr. Y of Karnataka for Rs. 1,000,000, which he disclosed in the GSTR-1 for August 2020.

Now that he realizes he made a mistake in the invoice date, he may create an adjusted invoice with the right invoice date, i.e., August 16th, 2020. This updated invoice will be included in the September 2020 GSTR-1.

Summing Up

GSTR-1 is a sales return that must be filed by all GST registered individuals. Taxpayers must complete the GSTR 1 sales return with information about their sales and outward supply. We hope this article has helped you grasp everything you need to know about filing the same.

If you file Form GSTR-1 after the due date, the late fee will be auto-populated and collected in the following open return in Form GSTR-3B.

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