File taxes under GST

With the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime coming into effect soon, there will be major changes in the way businesses need to file their tax returns and sellers will have to adapt to these changes rapidly. Sellers will now need to file GSTR1, GSTR2, and GSTR3 forms every month, as opposed to once a quarter in the pre-GST regime. They will have to file GSTR1 by the 10th of the next month and GSTR2 by the 15th of the next month, leaving just a 5 day window for reconciliation of the GSTR1 form.

Sellers on the Amazon.in marketplace will now need to ensure on-time, monthly submission of various forms such as the GSTR-1, which will contain all sales made on Amazon.in, and the GSTR-2, which will have details about the Tax Collection at Source (TCS) requirement (to be notified at future date). Failure to reconcile these and/or file for returns on time, would result in the seller not receiving the correct input tax credit and also incur heavy interest and penalties, which in turn poses a threat to their working capital. All this makes maintaining accuracy and timeliness of filing of returns a challenge for sellers.

In order to help and enable sellers with this, Amazon and ClearTax have partnered to launch "ClearTax Biz" ("Solution"), an online software hosted on cleartax.in that aims to help all sellers on Amazon.in file and reconcile their tax returns effortlessly and in compliance with the law. The Solution (which is available at a special discount for sellers selling on Amazon.in) aims to be a one-stop GST solution for sellers on Amazon.in marketplace through seamless integrations with Amazon.in. Sellers can create GST sales and purchase invoices in compliance with GST laws reconcile and file their returns with 100% accuracy, and have access to dashboards that help in better cash flow management, enabling them to maintain their compliance ratings. The Solution also allows sellers to communicate and resolve mis-matches with their vendors and tax professionals on a real-time basis, effectively increasing the 5-day reconciliation window. Sellers can take advantage of the webinars and training sessions, held up to 5 times a day, to better understand the Solution and how to use the Solution. Click here to visit the ClearTax website.

The ClearTax Biz Solution aims to make all of this achievable for the seller with just a few clicks. The seller simply needs to download their Merchant Transaction Report (‘MTR’) from Seller Central Account and upload it to the ClearTax portal for the Solution to auto-populate their GSTR-1 form, which can be subsequently filed by the seller. Similarly, for GSTR-2, seller needs to simply upload their excel records of purchases on the ClearTax portal, and the Solution will help reconcile between seller's records and invoices filed by the seller's vendors in GSTR-1 and TCS related returns filed by Amazon in GSTR-8. Post reconciliation the seller can file GSTR-2. The seller can then reconcile any objections raised by registered customers in GSTR-1, and finally file GSTR-3 and make the payment – all on the ClearTax Biz portal itself. In addition, sellers can create GST compliant sales and purchase invoices through the Solution, helping the sellers file returns for offline sales easily as well.

The Solution will auto populate the orders in GSTR-1 for sellers from various marketplaces and allow for completing monthly compliance at the click of a few buttons.

With ClearTax Biz, a seller can process an unlimited number of B2C invoices per year, up to 5000 B2B invoices per year, and get access to reconciliation reports, individual/bulk mismatch actions, and vendor communication for input credit. ClearTax Biz also has features such as an early warning system to avoid interest and penalty, dashboards for business owners showing accounts payable/accounts receivable, and a government compliance rating view. For sellers with more than 5000 B2B invoices and multiple GSTINs, a top-up can be availed, which will provide an additional 5000 B2B invoices and an additional GSTIN. The solution also has a feature that allows sellers to enable their CAs to view their records and reconcile easily and on time.

Not a seller on Amazon yet? Click here to register.