From January 1, GST Taxpayers would be able to assess their tax dues themselves without having to go through the bulky process of filing GST tax returns on a monthly basis.
The new Quarterly Return and Monthly Payment Scheme (QRMP) will be introduced for GST taxpayers by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) before the end of the year. Instead of filing 12 returns at present, this will allow only 4 GSTR-3B returns during the entire year.
According to Sources, the taxpayer would need not upload and file all the invoices for the month and could upload and file only those invoices which are required to be filed in IFF as per the demand of the recipients. The remaining invoices of the first and second months can be uploaded in the quarterly GSTR-1 return. The IFF would be available up to a cut-off date and credit would flow to the recipient after the cut-off date on filing of the IFF.
As per the scheme, while returns through form GSTR-3B will be filed only quarterly and not monthly as at present, taxpayers would be lower to pay taxes dues on a monthly basis based on a self-assessment method.
The self-assessment would allow taxpayers to pay their monthly dues based on 100 per cent of net cash liability paid in the previous month or 35 per cent of cash liability paid on the previous quarter or actual self-assessment of tax dues after deducting the input tax credit (ITC).
Under the new scheme, GSTR-3B will be filed only at the end of a three-month period.
Under QRMP scheme, the taxpayer would have the preference to pay their due monthly taxes as per his own choice either by cash ledger or through pre-filled challan which would be 35 per cent of the previous quarter's cash paid or may pay as per actual. Thereby, a small taxpayer would require professional help, as and when required, particularly in the last month of the quarter and can be free from tax-related stress by simply making payment through a system-generated, pre-filled challan.
The scheme would impact almost 94 lakh taxpayers, about 92 per cent of the total tax base of the GST, who have an annual aggregate turnover (AATO) up to Rs. 5 crores, said the Sources in the Department of Revenue (DoR).
Sources in the know of the matter said that the QRMP scheme has an optional feature of Invoice Filing Facility (IFF) to mitigate business-related hardships for the small and medium taxpayers. Under the facility of IFF, the small taxpayers who opt to be quarterly return filers under QRMP scheme would be able to upload and file such invoices even in the first and second month of the quarter for which there is a demand from the recipients. Further, this would engage buyers who earlier used to avoid purchase from the small taxpayers in the want of uploading of invoices in the system on monthly basis.
