It’s Smiling Time for GST Taxpayers

Congratulations! There is good for you. The GST department just announced for that any GST tax payer, who is late on his /her GST tax returns, won’t have to pay more than INR 500/- on their late fees. What’s even more amazing is that the regardless of how late you are and how much tax you have paid, the penalty amount will remain the same. But, there is a condition.  

The tax department announced in its notification on 24th June 2020 that all those who have delayed in filing GSTR-3B won’t be charged more than INR 500/-. However, GSTR-3B will still have to be filed before the final date that falls on the month of September 2020.

Clarification by Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs

The central board of indirect taxes and customers clarified that the taxpayers won’t be hit with any late fee for the returns with zero GST liability from July 2017 to January 2020. However, such returns have to be filed between the dates: 1st July 2020 and 30th September 2020.

For those with some GSTS tax liability, the 500 rupee penalty cap applies.

More reasons to smile for tax payers

Other than the penalty being capped at INR 500, the finance minister of India gave other reasons for the small taxpayers to smile:

1. Taxpayer with turnover less than INR 5 Crore will pay interest less than 9%.
2. The above facility is available till 30th September

Note: If the GSTR-3B returns aren’t filed within the mentioned date, the interest will be 18 percent.

More things to note

Although this notification waived the penalities for the newly filed taxes, a few things that you should note:

1. A lot of late income tax returns have been filed by March 31st 2019 with the prescribed penalties for the GST period of July 2017 to September 2018.
2. There is still no word whether those penalities will be returned to the taxpayers or not.

Conclusion

The government has seen it fit with wave penalities for late GST filing. However, that doesn’t mean that you should sit ideally by. Get our GST experts online and file the taxes before September 30th so that you can rest easy.

Author: Dushyant Sharma

Hey there, I'm Dushyant Sharma. With the extensive knowledge I've gained in past 8 years, I have been creating content on various subjects such as banking, insurance, telecom, and all the important registration and licensing processes for various companies. I'm here to help everyone with my expertise in these areas through my articles.