How to File Form GSTR-9C on the GST Portal?

Taxpayers with an aggregate annual turnover exceeding Rs.5 crore in the previous financial year must file GSTR-9C via self-certification. Enterprises must ensure to keep the reporting accurate and complete to avoid any scruitiny later on.

Key Takeaways

• Taxpayers with aggregate turnover above ₹5 crore in a financial year must file GSTR-9C via self-certification.
• Filing GSTR-9C requires the taxpayer to first file GSTR-9 (Annual Return).
• The GSTR-9C Offline Utility must be downloaded to prepare, validate, and generate the JSON file for upload.
• Once the JSON is uploaded, taxpayers must also upload the audited financial statements (Balance Sheet and P&L in PDF).
• Filing completes when the taxpayer verifies details and clicks “File GSTR-9C” on the GST portal; filed returns can then be tracked online.

Pre-Requisites to Prepare and File GSTR-9C

To file the GSTR-9C form, there are a few pre-conditions that have to be fulfilled-

• The taxpayer must have a valid GSTIN and must be registered under GST.
• The login credentials of the taxpayer (Username and password) must be valid.
• The taxpayer should have filed Form GSTR-9 (Annual Return) for that financial year.
• The taxpayer’s business must have an aggregate turnover exceeding Rs.5 crore.

Steps to Generate form GSTR-9C JSON File from the Offline Utility?

The taxpayer will have to perform steps both offline as well as on the GST portal-

Step 1: Log in to the GST portal, click on Services tab > Returns > Annual Return, select the relevant financial year and download the GSTR-9 form.

Step 2: Next, download the GSTR-9C tables derived from GSTR-9.

Step 3: The GSTR-9C Offline Tool must also be downloaded. This may be done from the downloads tab by selecting “Offline Tools”, and then selecting “GSTR-9C Offline Tool”.

Step 4: With the help of the GSTR-9C Offline Tool, the following steps may be done to prepare the GSTR-9C:-

1. Open the GSTR Offline Utility Worksheet and then feed in the relevant data into the tables on the worksheet.
2. To then view the draft version of Form GSTR-9C, the preview PDF file has to be generated.
3. Once this is done, the JSON file can be generated.

How to Upload the GSTR-9C JSON File on the GST Portal?

In order to upload the JSON file that was generated-

Step 1: The taxpayer will need to login to the GST portal using the GSTR-9C Offline Utility. 
Step 2: Once the login is successful, the taxpayer shall select “Annual Return” under ‘Returns’ tab, select the appropriate financial year and then click on search.

Once the page loads, select the option “Prepare Offline” and then click on the “Upload” button available.

Step 3: User can make any edits/changes in the GSTR-9C form before clicking on the “Proceed to File” button. Whenever users make changes, they must re-generate the JSON file and again upload the same through the GSTR-9C offline utility.

Note: If the JSON file displays errors during the upload, the taxpayer can download the Error Report, make the necessary corrections and then upload the updated JSON file.

Steps to File the form GSTR-9C on the GST Portal

Step 1: Once the generated JSON file is uploaded on the GST portal, the user may then proceed towards adding the financial statements such as the balance sheet, profit and loss statement and other necessary documents after the necessary verification.

Step 2: The documents to be uploaded must be uploaded in PDF format. The file size limit is 5 MB per file and a maximum of 2 files can be uploaded in each section.

Step 3: At the time of uploading the necessary documents, the “SAVE” button must be clicked on after the upload of each document which shows the status as “Processed”. If the “SAVE” button is not clicked with each upload, an error message will be displayed if the user clicks on “PROCEED TO FILE”.

Step 4: The “PROCEED TO FILE” button will be enabled only once the following documents are successfully uploaded:

• Generated JSON file
• Balance Sheet in the PDF format
• Profit and Loss Account/Income & Expenditure Account in the PDF Format
• Two other optional documents, if any.

Step 5: The user can choose to view the draft of the GSTR-9C by clicking on the “PREVIEW DRAFT GSTR-9C (PREVIEW)” button.

Step 6: Clicking on the “PROCEED TO FILE” button will then take the user to the verification page. Once the verification details are confirmed, the “FILE GSTR-9C” button will be enabled, indicating that it is the final step where the form is ready to be filed once the user clicks on it.

Step 7: Once it is successfully filed, the user can always track it by going to the “Services” tab on the GST Portal and selecting “Returns” from the dropdown list and then selecting the “View Filed Returns” option.

If you are facing any errors while generating or uploading a GSTR-9C JSON file or filing GSTR-9C, please refer to our article on ‘List of JSON errors in GSTR-9C filing & Solutions’ to get the solutions for the same.