GST taxpayers to get flexibility to decide on monthly tax payment

New Delhi: Come January 1 and GST taxpayers would be able to pay their tax dues on a self assessment basis without having to go through the cumbersome process of filing tax returns on a monthly basis.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) will introduce the new Quarterly Return and Monthly Payment Scheme (QRMP) for GST taxpayers from next year that will allow taxpayers to file only 4 GSTR-3B returns in a year instead of 12 returns at present.

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 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 crore, said the Sources in the Department of Revenue (DoR).

Sources in the know of the matter said that the QRMP scheme has 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.

According to Sources, that 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 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.