GSTR-9A: A Detailed Guide for Composition Scheme Taxpayers

The 53^rd GST council meeting announced taxpayers below annual turnover of Rs 2Cr to be exempted from GSTR-9A for FY 2023-24.

 Let’s take a quick walk through GSTR-9A meaning, its applicability, due date, turnover limit and more.  

What is GSTR-9A Annual Return? 

GSTR-9A has been discontinued for composition taxpayers for periods after FY 2018-19. Its current relevance is limited to filing historical returns for taxpayers who were under the composition scheme during FY 2018-19 or earlier and have pending compliance obligations for those periods. For all subsequent financial years, GSTR-9A is no longer applicable

It consolidates summary of inward and outward supplies, taxes paid, and other information gathered in the quarters for the financial year. 

What is the GSTR-9A Turnover Limit? 

Filing form 9A of GSTR is mandatory for composition taxpayers whose turnover limit exceeds Rs 2Cr. The GSTR-9A turnover limit ensures that businesses above the threshold contribute to accurate tax reporting and liabilities. 

GSTR-9A Applicability: Who can file the returns? 

All Taxpayers who have opted for composition scheme are liable to file form 9A of GSTR. Here’s a list of taxpayers who can opt to be exempt from filing this return. 

• NRI’s i.e. Non-resident taxpayers 
• Input Service Distributor 
• TDS paying taxpayers under section 51 
• Casual Taxable persons
• eCom operators paying TCS under section 52 of the act 

GSTR-9A Due Date 

31st December of the year is the GSTR-9A last date for filing returns. This means, composition taxpayers opting to file form 9A of GSTR need to do it on or before 31^st of December. 

Eligibility Criteria for Filing GSTR-9A 

Here are the following prerequisites taxpayers need to meet: 

1. A business owner should be a composition scheme taxpayer 
2. Taxpayers should have filed GSTR-4 forms before opting for GSTR-9A 
3. A business should have an annual turnover of upto Rs.75 Lakh. However, for north-eastern states the requirement should be less that Rs.50 Lakh. 
4. For registered businesses, individuals should keep a track of all transactions. 

GSTR-9A Format

Form 9A of GST Returns has 5 parts. Let’s see what they are: 

Part 1: This part caters to basic information that concerns a taxpayer. Details like GSTIN, legal name, and trade name are a few examples. These details get auto-populated and thus taxpayers don’t need to enter them manually. 

Part 2: 2^nd part refers to a detailed picture of inward and outward supplies that are already mentioned in GSTR-4 during the current financial year. This section draws an outline for all the information specified in the quarterly returns. 

Part 3: This section of the GSTR-9A format includes all the details about the tax amount as mentioned in returns filed during the financial year by the taxpayers. It involves taxes paid under multiple heads like CGST, SGST, IGST, as well as the penalties applied, etc. 

Part 4: Part 4 concerns all the transactions made in the previous financial year. This information is already mentioned in the returns that fall between April and September for the current financial year. 

Part 5: This section consists of in-depth details on sales and refund. It also caters to information that relates to the taxes paid and pending balance from the taxpayer. For a taxpayer who wishes to switch from a composition scheme to a regular scheme, the Input Tax Credit (ITC) amount needs to be adjusted. This section also caters to all these adjustments. 

How to File GSTR-9A Online? A step-by-step process! 

There’s no offline process to file returns, so you need to follow the below steps for online processing. 

1. Go to the official GST council website.
2. Login to the GSTN portal with your credentials. 
3. Now navigate to “Services” > “Returns” > “Annual Returns” 
4. Choose the financial year for filing the returns. 
5. A questionnaire will appear, you need to answer it. For individuals who need to file Nil returns then you need to select the declaration checkbox, otherwise you can proceed with answering the questions. Once you choose the answers, annual return page for the composition scheme taxpayers will be visible on your screen. All the tiles will get enabled and the taxpayers can fill in the information. 
6. Now, you need to enter the following details in the relevant tiles.
   1. Inward and outward supply details for a specific financial year. 
   2. Enter the turnover information. 

For entered values which are 20% more or less that the system-generated information, the cells will get highlighted. If the confirmation box pops up, click “Yes” to proceed.  

3. Inward supply information
4. Taxes paid details
5. Transaction details related to the previous year already shared in the April to September returns for the specified financial year. 
6. Differential taxes paid based on the transactions discussed in point e. 
7. Demand and refund details, if applicable. 
8. Credit availed or reversed information. 

7. Now, click on “Preview” to see the information in Excel or PDF. Verify all the details for accuracy. 
8. Click on “Compute Liabilities” to calculate late fees and liabilities if applicable. You will see, late fees payable and paid tile getting enabled. Click here for payments using offset funds from the electronic cash ledger. In case, the funds are not enlought you need to create a new challan for making transactions through NEFT/RTGS. 
9. Now, preview the file once again to view and validate the late fees. 
10. Now, choose the declaration checkbox and select authorized signatory for proceeding ahead with GSTR-9A filing. Here, you can use digital signature or electronic verification signature for return filing. 

Wrap Up

Hopefully, the article was helpful to you. If you have any query, shoot them in the comment section below. We will surely answer them.

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FAQs

1.  What are GSTR-9A late fees?

Rs. 200 is applied late fees per day for GSTR-9A where 100 is for CGST and 100 for SGST.

2.  What interest rate is applied on late filing of GSTR-9A?

18% annually is the interest rate on GST late fees applied for GSTR-9A.

3.  What is the maximum penalty imposed for GSTR-9A?

Rs.5000 is the maximum penalty imposed for GSTR-9A.

4.  What is the difference between GSTR-4 and GSTR-9A?

GSTR-4 needs to be filed quarterly, While GSTR-9A is filed annually. GSTR-4 is filed on or before 18^th of the last month, while GSTR-9A is filed on or before 31^st December.