GSTN urges taxpayers to upload invoices, fill returns before last day

Taxpayers must upload their invoices on an everyday basis and must file their returns early and not wait for the last day so as to have a smoother transition into the new GST regime, GSTN urged today. Functionality for invoice data upload has been active since July 14.

Uploading of invoices is a simple process at the GST Portal and should be completed early in order to avoid delays that are usually witnessed on the last day.

Although the GST portal has been made technologically robust and can handle as many as 3.2 billion invoices every month, businessmen must not wait for the last date for uploading invoices or for filing returns.

"Uploading invoices on daily basis has many advantages- it will allow buyers and sellers to immediately verify the amount of purchases and then tally them. This will also enable them to accept or modify the same," said chairman, Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), Navin Kumar.

The process of uploading the invoices can be performed both online as well as offline. Small businesses who have, lets say, up to 500 invoices in a month can upload it online. Larger businesses which have thousands of invoices can make use of the offline tool which can be downloaded from the GSTN portal.

This tool, which is linked to a simple excel sheet, can take as many as 19,000 entries at a time. So, a taxpayer, who has thousands of invoices, can divide them into groups of 19000 invoices, fill up the data of each group in excel sheet one after another and use the offline tool to upload the data to the GST portal.

All the features and tools on the GST portal are launched after thorough testing and many taxpayers have been using the offline tool and are extremely satisfied with it. This gives them the flexibility of uploading the invoices at night or in their free time.

Even return filing must be done early. The GST Portal has been made in such a way that it makes the entire process of filing returns easier. There are many features at the portal which have been incorporated keeping the ease of businessmen in mind.

For example, the GST system will calculate all the tax liabilities and credits of the taxpayer based on the invoice data furnished and the taxpayer need not do these calculations himself.