GST Return Filing in Chennai

What is GST return filing?

A GST return is a periodic declaration of your sales, purchases, tax collected, and tax paid, filed on the GST portal against your GSTIN. Filing is per registration, not per business — a company with three state GSTINs files three separate sets of returns.

The system is designed as a chain. What you report in GSTR-1 flows into your customer’s GSTR-2B as credit, and what your suppliers report flows into yours. That is why a supplier who does not file quietly becomes your problem: your credit does not appear, and the mismatch surfaces later as a notice.

Filing and payment are separate acts. You can file GSTR-3B only after discharging the liability, and interest runs on unpaid tax from the due date regardless of when the return itself is eventually filed.

What is the full GST return calendar?

The table below maps the forms most businesses encounter, with the frequency and the commonly notified due date. Due dates are routinely extended by notification, and the QRMP GSTR-3B date differs by state group, so verify the current date for your period before relying on any calendar.

The annual layer is covered separately in GST annual return, and the closing return in GSTR-10 final return.

What is the difference between GSTR-1, GSTR-2B and GSTR-3B?

GSTR-1 is your outward statement: every B2B invoice, consolidated B2C sales, exports, credit and debit notes, and amendments to earlier periods. It is the source of your customers’ credit, so accuracy here affects other people, not just you.

GSTR-2B is not a return at all — it is a static, auto-drafted statement of the credit available to you, generated from what your suppliers filed. It is the reference point for what you may claim, and a credit that is not in GSTR-2B is generally not available however good your invoice looks.

GSTR-3B is the summary return where liability and credit meet and tax is actually paid. Outward liability is auto-populated from GSTR-1 and GSTR-1A and is not editable at filing, so the only route to fix an outward error is GSTR-1A for the same period or an amendment in a later GSTR-1.

Who can opt for the QRMP scheme?

The Quarterly Return Monthly Payment scheme is available to regular taxpayers whose aggregate turnover in the preceding financial year stayed within the prescribed limit — commonly ₹5 crore. You file GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B quarterly but pay tax monthly through PMT-06 for the first two months of each quarter.

• Four sets of returns a year instead of twelve, which reduces the chance of a missed deadline
• Monthly payment still applies — either at a fixed percentage of last period’s tax or on self-assessment
• The optional Invoice Furnishing Facility lets you pass B2B credit to customers in months 1 and 2
• IFF is optional, but once submitted it must be filed or the quarterly GSTR-1 is blocked
• B2B customers who want monthly credit may prefer that you file monthly instead

The scheme is chosen per GSTIN and can be switched at the start of a quarter within the window the portal allows. If most of your revenue is B2B and your customers track credit closely, monthly filing is often the better commercial choice even though QRMP is lighter.

What is the Invoice Management System and why does it matter?

The Invoice Management System is the portal facility where the invoices, debit notes, and credit notes your suppliers file appear for your action. You can accept a record, reject it, or keep it pending. Accepted records flow into GSTR-2B as available credit and auto-populate GSTR-3B; rejected records do not; pending records sit until you act on them.

Doing nothing is itself a decision. Records with no action taken are treated as deemed accepted when GSTR-2B is generated, which means a wrong or duplicated supplier invoice becomes your claimed credit unless someone looks at it. Actions can be revised and GSTR-2B recomputed until GSTR-3B is filed, after which they are locked for that period.

Practically, IMS turns credit reconciliation from a year-end exercise into a monthly one. That is a net gain: mismatches get caught while the supplier can still correct them, rather than in a scrutiny notice two years later.

How do you file GST returns online?

1. 1.Close the books for the period and reconcile sales register to invoices issued
2. 2.Review IMS and take accept, reject, or pending action on every supplier record
3. 3.Generate or recompute GSTR-2B and reconcile it against your purchase register
4. 4.Prepare and file GSTR-1 with B2B invoices, B2C summaries, exports, and credit or debit notes
5. 5.Check the auto-drafted GSTR-3B against your own computation before doing anything else
6. 6.If GSTR-1 carried an error, correct it through GSTR-1A for the same period before filing GSTR-3B
7. 7.Identify reverse-charge liability and blocked credits, which are not auto-populated
8. 8.Create the challan and pay tax, interest, and any late fee through the cash ledger
9. 9.File GSTR-3B with DSC or EVC and download the filed return and payment receipt
10. 10.Reconcile the electronic credit and cash ledgers to your books each month

File in order. GSTR-1 comes before GSTR-3B for the same period, and an unfiled earlier period blocks the later one — the portal enforces sequence, so a single skipped month stops the whole chain.

What are the late fees for GST returns?

Late fee runs per day of delay from the day after the due date until the return is filed, at a lower rate for nil returns, and is subject to caps linked to turnover. The figures below are the commonly applicable rates and are fixed by notification, so confirm the current position and cap for your turnover band before computing an exposure.

Interest is separate from late fee. Unpaid tax attracts interest at the rate the Act prescribes — commonly 18% a year — computed on the net cash liability in the ordinary case, and at a higher rate where credit was wrongly availed and utilised. Late fee is a filing penalty; interest is the cost of holding the government’s money.

Do you have to file nil GST returns?

Yes. A registration with no sales in a period still files GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B as nil returns, and the portal offers a single-step nil filing path when there is no auto-populated data, no manual entry, and no outstanding interest or late fee. It takes a few minutes.

Skipping them is the single most common reason a dormant GSTIN turns into a problem. Late fee accrues on every nil period, the sequence lock stops you filing anything later, and continued default eventually triggers suspension and then cancellation — after which you are into revocation or a fresh registration.

How do you correct a mistake in a filed GST return?

GST has no revised return. Corrections are made forward, and the route depends on what went wrong and when you noticed.

• Error in GSTR-1 spotted before GSTR-3B for the same period — fix it in GSTR-1A
• Error in GSTR-1 spotted later — amend the invoice in a subsequent period’s GSTR-1 amendment tables
• Credit over-claimed in GSTR-3B — reverse it in a later GSTR-3B with interest
• Credit under-claimed — claim it in a later period, within the statutory time limit for that invoice
• Liability short-paid — pay the difference with interest, in a later GSTR-3B or voluntarily through DRC-03
• Error discovered only at year end — disclose the corrected position in the annual return

All of these routes have an outer limit. The statutory cut-off for amending an invoice and for claiming credit on it is tied to the return period and annual return date for the relevant financial year, so an error found three years later may simply not be correctable.

What is the time limit for claiming input tax credit?

Credit on an invoice must be claimed by the earlier of two dates: the due date of the GSTR-3B for a prescribed month following the end of the financial year in which the invoice was issued, or the date of filing the annual return for that year. Miss both and the credit lapses permanently — there is no condonation mechanism.

Credit also needs substantive conditions met, not just timing: you must hold a tax invoice, have received the goods or services, the supplier must have paid the tax, and the record must appear in your GSTR-2B. Certain credits — motor vehicles, personal consumption, works contracts for immovable property, goods lost or given as free samples — are blocked by law regardless of documentation.

Credit taken on an invoice you have not paid for within the prescribed period has to be reversed and can be reclaimed once payment is made. This trips up businesses with long vendor credit cycles more often than anything else.

Is there a deadline after which a GST return cannot be filed at all?

Yes, and it is the change most businesses with a backlog underestimate. The CGST Act now bars furnishing a return after the expiry of a prescribed period — commonly three years — from its original due date, and the portal enforces it. Once that window closes, the period stays permanently unfiled.

The consequences are not cosmetic. Credit for that period is gone, your customers’ credit chain for those invoices is broken, and the department retains the power to assess the liability on a best-judgment basis. If you are carrying old unfiled periods, the sensible move is to establish exactly which ones are still inside the window and file those first.

What happens if you do not file GST returns?

Non-filing escalates through a predictable sequence, and it is much cheaper to stop it early than to unwind it later.

1. 1.Late fee starts accruing per day, and interest runs on any unpaid tax
2. 2.The next period is blocked, because the portal enforces filing in sequence
3. 3.The e-way bill facility is blocked after continued default, which stops goods movement
4. 4.A notice in Form GSTR-3A is issued requiring the pending return within the stated window
5. 5.Failure to respond can lead to a best-judgment assessment in Form ASMT-13
6. 6.The assessment is followed by a demand order, and then recovery — including bank attachment
7. 7.The registration is suspended and then cancelled for continued non-filing
8. 8.After cancellation, GSTR-10 becomes due and revocation needs every pending return cleared first

If you have already received a notice, work from the notice itself — its form number and section tell you the reply form and the deadline. See GST notice reply.

What monthly reconciliation prevents GST notices?

Almost every scrutiny notice we see comes from one of three mismatches: GSTR-1 against GSTR-3B, GSTR-3B credit against GSTR-2B, or GST turnover against the turnover in the income tax return. All three are visible monthly if anyone looks.

• Sales register tied to GSTR-1, invoice count and value
• GSTR-1 outward liability tied to the auto-populated figure in GSTR-3B
• Purchase register tied to GSTR-2B, with every difference explained by name
• Credit claimed in GSTR-3B tied to GSTR-2B plus permitted non-2B items such as import of services
• Reverse-charge liability identified and paid, and its credit claimed separately
• Electronic credit and cash ledger balances tied to the books
• Annual GST turnover tied to the turnover in your income tax return

Suppliers who have not filed are worth chasing in the same month, not at year end. Once the statutory credit deadline for that invoice passes, a supplier fixing their return no longer helps you.

How did the 2025 rate rationalisation affect return filing?

The GST Council’s rationalisation moved most goods and services into a two-rate structure of a merit rate and a standard rate, with a higher demerit rate for a small list of luxury and sin goods, effective from late September 2025. Specified tobacco products were held at their earlier rates and cess pending a separate notification.

For return filing the practical effect is a transition period in your data. Invoices before and after the change date sit in the same financial year at different rates, credit notes issued after the change relate to supplies taxed before it, and HSN-wise reporting has to reflect both. Getting the rate master and the effective dates right in your billing system is the whole job; the returns themselves are unchanged.

Why choose Arjun Filings for GST return filing?

Arjun Filings runs GST return filing as a checklist-first engagement: a qualified CA or CS scopes the work, tells you exactly which documents are needed, and reviews every form before it is signed and submitted. You get a named specialist, a status update at each stage, and a compliance calendar for whatever comes next.

• CA-led desk for GST return filing
• Checklist before portal submission
• Mismatch and notice awareness
• Clear status until certificate or ack