From July 1, 2017, India's GST (Goods and Services Tax) has replaced various indirect taxes imposed by the state and federal governments. Every financial year, registered taxpayers must submit a complete GST annual return. According to the Goods and Services Tax Act, a yearly return must be filed with the government. GST aims to convert the entire nation into a single market. 

If you are new to GST and eager to know how this new tax will affect you and your business, how to file annual returns, and other related topics, this section will help you understand the basics of annual return filing.

GSTR 9 is a yearly return to be filed annually by taxpayers registered under GST and includes details regarding the outward and inward supplies made and received during the relevant financial year under different tax heads, i.e., CGST, SGST & IGST, and HSN codes. Although it is a complex process, this return helps in the extensive data reconciliation for 100% transparent disclosures. The last date to submit the GSTR 9 form is December 31 from the subsequent financial year.

There are four types of GSTR-9 annual returns under the GST law.

GSTR 9- It comprises registered taxpayers who file GSTR- GSTR-2, GSTR-3, and GSTR 3B 

GSTR-9A- Registered and composite dealers come under this.

GSTR-9B- It includes e-commerce dealers

GSTR-9C- It is an audit form that has to be filed by all the companies with a turnover crossing ₹2 Crores in a financial year.

All business dealers and owners registered under the GST system must file their GST returns using applicable forms, either online or offline. However, there are some exceptions, and the list includes:

The person who falls under the "Casual Taxable Person".

The person who is not a resident of India.

Any e-commerce website or portal collecting TCS.

Every taxpayer must submit the GSTR 9 form within the given time limit. If he fails to comply with that, there is a considerable GSTR 9 penalty amount of 200 INR per day. This late fee consists of CGST 100 INR per day and SGST 100 INR per day, and there is no late fee payment on IGST. The penalty amount will not exceed the taxpayer's quarter turnover.

Eazybills is an online accounting software that helps you manage your finances and file GST returns.

When you generate a GSTR-9 summary on the GSTN, the transaction details may differ from what you've recorded in your books of accounts. When this happens, you must manually reconcile the information, which can be tedious and error-prone. With Eazybills, you can connect to the GSTN and generate a GSTR-9 summary based on the transactions you've created, then fetch the GSTR-9 summary from the GSTN and compare them to see which fields need to be updated. Once done, you can file the updated summary to the GSTN. This reduces the amount of time you spend updating your returns.

When submitting GST returns, taxpayers encounter technical problems, lengthy processes, and ambiguous regulations.

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