Guide to file GSTR-8 using Offline Utility

All e-commerce operators who are required to deduct TCS (tax collected at source) for all the taxable supplies made, must file GSTR-8. Form GSTR-8 contains details of taxable supplies made and tax collected by e-commerce operators.

Who can use the offline tool for GSTR-8?

The offline tool for GSTR-8 is an excel based tool. It facilitates return preparation in offline mode. TCS deductors or GST practitioners can use this offline utility to update the following details:

• Transactions that attract the provisions of TCS under section 52 of the CGST Act under table 3, and
• Amendment details in table 4 of form GSTR-8.

Prerequisites to use offline tool for GSTR-8

A taxpayer is required to use:

• Windows 7 and above
• MS Excel 2007 and above

Steps to download the offline tool for GSTR-8

Step 1: Go to the GST portal.

Step 2: Navigate to Downloads > Offline Tools > GSTR 8 Offline Utility

Step 3: Returns page will be displayed. Click on the download link.

Step 4: A warning message will pop-up. Click on the “proceed” button. A zipped GSTR-8 offline utility folder will get downloaded.

Step 5: Extract the GSTR8_offline_utility excel file from the zipped folder. Right click and click on open.

Step 6: Click on the “enable editing” button.

Then, click on the “enable content” button and go to the “read me” tab. Scroll down and read the entire set of instructions carefully before filling the worksheets.

There are 5 worksheet tabs in the GSTR-8 offline utility:

• Read Me
• Home
• 3 TCS
• 4 Amend
• Suppliers Master

Steps to fill up the tables of GSTR-8 on the offline utility

Step 1: To fill the table-wise details, go to the home tab. Enter the GSTIN, financial year and tax period.

Step 2: Go to the “suppliers master” tab and enter the GSTIN, legal name and trade name of the deductee. Updating details in this tab enables easy population of data in table 3 and 4. However, it is not compulsory to update the “suppliers master” tab.

Column B, serial number will get auto-populated. A taxpayer can go to the “action” column, to delete any details from the master sheet.

Step 3: Click on the “validate sheet” button.

(1)In case of error: On clicking the “validate sheet” button, the cells with error will be highlighted in red along with a yellow dialog box stating the error. After making corrections to the highlighted errors, again click on the “validate sheet” button.

(2)In case of no errors: Pop-up message will come “sheet successfully validated, no errors found”. Click ok to proceed.

Step 4: Go to tab “3 TCS” and update the following details:

• Column B GSTIN of the deductee: This column has a drop-down list containing all the GSTINs which were updated in the suppliers master tab. One can either select the GSTIN from the master list or enter it manually. GSTINs can also be copy/pasted from another sheet by clicking on the “enable suppliers’ master drop-down” button. By clicking on it, the button will change to “disable suppliers’ master drop-down”. Now, one can easily use the copy/paste functionality.
• Column C: Enter the gross value of supplies made to registered persons.
• Column D: Enter the value of supplies returned by the registered persons.
• Column E: Enter the gross value of supplies made to unregistered persons.
• Column F: Enter the value of supplies returned by the unregistered persons.
• Column G: Net amount liable for TCS will be auto-calculated based on data updated in columns C to F. If the values entered in D and F are more than the values entered in C and F, column G will automatically calculate a negative amount.
• Column H: Enter the amount of integrated tax. It should be a minimum 1% of net amount liable for TCS.
• Column I: Enter the central tax (CGST) amount and make sure it is 0.5% of the amount entered in column G, equal to column J.
• Column J: Enter the state tax (SGST) amount and make sure it is 0.5% of the amount entered in column G, equal to column I.
• Column K: It has a drop-down list with two options:
  1. Add- Select add for each row with TCS data.
  2. Delete- This option can be used for subsequent uploads to delete rows from the already uploaded data on the portal.

Step 5: Click on the “validate sheet” button. In case of successful validation, column L will be blank. In case of unsuccessful validation, an error message will pop-up and column L will display the error found in that particular row. The cells with error will be highlighted in red. The yellow description box will display the error.

Correct the errors, if any. Again click on the “ validate sheet” button. If there are no errors, a message will pop-up. Click ok to proceed.

Step 6: Go to tab “4 amend”, if any changes are required in the previous months returns. Otherwise, skip this tab. Enter the following details in this tab:

• Column B and C- Select the month and year from the drop-down list.
• Column D and E- Select the GSTINs from the drop-down list.
• Column F, G, H and I- Enter the gross value of supplies made to registered persons/unregistered persons and gross value of supplies returned by registered persons/ unregistered persons.
• Column J- It will auto calculate the values based on amounts entered in column G, H and I.
• Column K, L and M- Enter the amount of integrated tax/central tax/state tax. Total of CGST and SGST or IGST alone should be 1% of the amount collected from the deductee.

Step 7: Generate JSON Go to the home tab and click on the “get summary” button to get a summary of all the details entered in table 3 and table 4 of the offline utility. After getting the summary, click on the “Generate JSON File to upload” button.

A “save as” pop-up window will come. Enter the file name and then click on save.

A message will pop-up that the file has been saved at the desired location. Click ok to proceed.

Another pop-up will appear with a message that the file has been generated and saved at the desired location. Now it can be uploaded on the portal. Click ok to proceed.

How to upload the generated JSON file of GSTR-8?

Step 1: Login to the GST portal.

Step 2: Navigate to Services > Returns > Returns Dashboard

Step 3: Select the financial year and return filing period on the file returns page. Click search.

Step 4: GSTR-8 tile is displayed with an important message box on the right. Click on prepare offline.

Step 5: The upload section of the offline upload and download for GSTR-8 page will be displayed. Click on the choose file button.

Step 6: Browse through the generated JSON file for upload. Then, click open.

On successful upload, a message will appear in green confirming the upload. The status in the upload history table will change to“in-progress”.

Step 7: In case of successful validation, the upload history table will display the status as “processed”.

In case the validation fails, the upload history table will show the status as “ processed with error”.

How to fix errors using an offline tool for GSTR-8?

Download the error report

Step 1: Click on the “generate error report” link as shown in the above screenshot. A confirmation message will be displayed and the status will change as shown in the below screenshot.

Step 2: Once the error report is generated. Click on the “Download error report” link to download the zipped error report.

Step 3: Unzip and save the JSON file on the system.

Open the downloaded JSON error file

To open the downloaded error GSTR-8 JSON file, follow the below steps:

Step 1: Go to the home tab. Click on the “open downloaded error JSON file” button under the error file handling section.

Step 2: A file dialog box will open. Navigate to the downloaded error file. Click ok to proceed.

Step 3: A message for successful import will pop-up. Click “ok” to proceed.

Step 4: Go to tab 3 TCS and tab 4 amend. The entries which failed validation will be displayed. Correct the entries as per remarks mentioned in the column “GST portal validation errors”.

Step 5: After making corrections, again click on the validate sheet button. On successful validation, a message will pop-up. Click “ok” to proceed.

After successfully uploading the offline utility, one can follow the next steps of online filing GSTR-8 in our article on “Online filing of GSTR-8” from step 6 onwards.  

Frequently Asked Questions on offline tool for GSTR-8

From where can a taxpayer download GSTR-8 offline utility without login to the portal?

A taxpayer can download the offline utility by clicking on this link- https://www.gst.gov.in/download/gstr8.

How many rows for TCS details can be added in the offline utility?

A maximum of 15,000 rows can be added in the utility.

If one of the suppliers of an e-commerce operator has made supplies to four different customers then is the e-commerce operator required to report all the four cases separately in the offline utility?

No, rows with duplicate GSTINs are not allowed in the utility. An e-commerce operator can add up all the supplies made through that particular supplier and enter one single consolidated amount in the “gross value of supplies made” column.

If the net amount liable for TCS gets negative, will it be accepted on the portal?

Yes, if the value of goods returned is more than the current month’s supply, then the utility will auto-calculate the net amount liable for TCS as negative. The IGST, CGST and SGST amounts for these columns will automatically become zero.

If a taxpayer has by mistake entered rows with the same GSTIN, can he use the delete option from the action column to delete such rows?

Add or delete option in the action column can be used to add/delete data on the GST portal. The incorrect data in a particular row can be deleted by using the delete button on the keyboard.