All About Monthly Filing of GSTR 1 Form

As per the decisions taken in the 23rd GST Council meeting, taxpayers with an annual aggregate turnover up to INR 1.5 Crore can now avail themselves of the option of filing quarterly GSTR 1 returns, whereas those taxpayers with an annual aggregate turnover of more than INR 1.5 Crore will need to file monthly GSTR 1 returns. In accordance with this notification the GSTN portal has now introduced the functionality of allowing taxpayers choose the return filing periodicity for the GSTR 1 form – quarterly or monthly.

In this blog, we will go through 4 major aspects of importance to those taxpayers who will be required to file monthly GSTR 1 returns.

Monthly GSTR 1 filing date

All taxpayers whose annual aggregate turnover is over INR 1.5 Crore, i.e. who need to file monthly returns, can now file GSTR 1 returns for the months of July, August, September, October and November 2017 in a sequential fashion. How to file GSTR 1 will indeed be a major compliance burden for businesses across India, as the GSTR 1 due date for all these returns will be the 10th of January, 2018.

As far as the subsequent monthly GSTR 1 returns are considered, till the end of the financial year 2017-18, the following are the dates:

• For the month of December 2017 – 10th February, 2018
• For the month of January 2018 – 10th March, 2018
• For the month of February 2018 – 10th April, 2018
• For the month of March 2018 – 10th May, 2018

Dependency of GSTR 1 returns on previous months returns

Filing of returns for previous months, is something which will be mandatory for any taxpayer who is filing GSTR 1 on a monthly basis. In other words, the GSTR 1 return for a particular period or month can be filed, only if the corresponding GSTR 3B returns and GSTR 1 returns for the previous months have been filed. For e.g. GSTR 1 for the month of August 2017 can be filed only after GSTR 3B and GSTR 1 of July 2017 are filed.

No option to change periodicity of GSTR 1 till end of FY 2017-18

Once a taxpayer has chosen the option of “Monthly” for the GSTR 1 periodicity, he will not be able to change the option for the remaining part of the financial year 2017-18. In no circumstance, will such a taxpayer, be allowed to opt for quarterly filing of GSTR 1 returns.

Option to edit invoices, credit notes, debit notes & shipping bill details in GSTR 1 form

Table 9 of the GSTR 1 form has now been introduced into the GST portal. Via this table, taxpayers are enabled with the facility to edit invoices, credit notes, debit notes or shipping bill details, which were submitted in the GSTR 1 returns of previous months – mostly July, as that is the only month for which some GSTR 1 returns have been submitted so far. The same can also be used to edit and amend details submitted in Table 6A of the GSTR 1 form, which is the section filed by exporters in their quest to claim GST refund on exports.