Everything About GSTR-4 - Return Filing, Rules, Format & Dates

Tally Solutions |Updated on: January 18, 2022

What is GSTR - 4?

Originally, Form GSTR-4 was a quarterly return form for those taxpayers who have opted to go for the GST Composition Scheme in the new indirect tax regime. In the latest GST council meeting, the periodicity of GSTR-4 is changed to annually.

All business who have opted composition scheme will be filing Form GST CMP-08 applicable from April.2019 for the financial year 2019-20. Form GST CMP 08 is a self-assessed return-cum challan to be filed quarterly. For the period prior to April.2019, GSTR-4 as a quarterly return will be applicable.

Under the GST composition scheme, taxpayers will be required to file one only return in every three months (quarter) rather than multiple returns in every month as is the case for a regular dealer.

However, not all businesses will be eligible to register under the GST composition scheme - only those business entities, for whom the annual turnover is below INR 1.5 Crore and who also fulfil other specified criteria can be entitled to register under the Composition Scheme.

One of the key points to be noted here is, that dealers under the composition scheme will be required to pay taxes at fixed rates, without availing input tax credit facility.

Who should do GSTR - 4 filing?

Any taxpayer opting for the Composition Scheme is required to do GSTR-4 filing, except for:

Non-resident Taxable Person
Taxpayers liable to collect TCS
Input Service Distributors
Taxpayers liable to deduct TDS
Compounding taxable person
Suppliers of OIDAR (Online Information and Database Access or Retrieval)

When is the GSTR - 4 last date?

The due date for filing GSTR 4 was 18th of the month after the end of the quarter. Now GSTR-4 being made annually, it should be filed by 30th April for every financial year by the composition dealers.

On a quarterly basis, Form GST CMP-08 needs to be filed by 18th of the month after the end of the quarter.

What if GSTR - 4 filing is not done?

A penalty of INR 200 per day is levied, up to a maximum penalty of INR 5,000 if GSTR-4 is not filed.

How to revise GSTR - 4?

GSTR-4 cannot be revised after filing on the GSTN Portal.

GSTR - 4 Format

In the GSTR-4 form, the taxpayer will be required to show the total value of supplies made in a specific period and tax paid at the composition rate. Earlier, the taxpayers were required to insert invoice- level purchase details for the purchases from normal taxpayers, which will be automatically updated via the GSTR-4A form, generated from the supply invoices uploaded by the opposite party in GSTR-1. Following the concerns raised by the taxpayers, GSTR-4A was suspended.

Now, CMP-08 needs to be filed quarterly and GSTR-4 annually.

How to file GSTR - 4

With GSTR-4 being made as an annual return, it expected that the form will be simplified and new provisions as required for annual return will be incorporated.

The below section will guide you with the details based on the current GSTR-4 Format. The GSTR-4 return form is divided into the following 13 sections, but it is not necessary to fill all these sections:

GSTIN: The taxpayer’s GSTIN will be auto-populated at the time of GSTR-4 return filing
Name of the Taxable Person: The taxpayer’s name will also be auto-populated at the time of logging into the common GST Portal
Aggregate Turnover: In this section, the taxpayer has to furnish details of the previous year’s aggregate turnover, and the aggregate turnover for the period of April-June, 2017 (for the first GSTR-4 filing). These fields will be auto-populated for the returns of October to December period.
Inward Supplies including supplies on which tax is to be paid on reverse charge: All purchases or inward supplies made by a business needs to be mentioned here, including:
- Inward Supplies from Unregistered Persons
- Inward Supplies from Registered Supplier (Attracting Reverse Charge)
- Inward Supplies from Registered Supplier (Other than Reverse Charge)
- Import of Services (subject to Reverse Charge)
Amendments to details of inward supplies furnished in return for earlier tax periods in Table 4 (including Debit Note/Credit Notes and their subsequent amendments): Any change in the details of inward supplies for earlier tax periods can be made here. The details of an invoice that needs to be corrected like invoice amount, amount of tax, etc. should be mentioned in this table. Also, a Debit Note or a Credit Note issued by the taxpayer has to be entered here. It will include amendment information mentioned in earlier tax periods and also original amended debit or credit note received, rate-wise.
Tax on outward supplies made (net of advance and goods returned): All sales made by composition dealer need to be entered in this table. The total value of all the bills of supply raised during the quarter has to be entered in the turnover field. The GST amount has to be segregated into CGST and SGST/UTGST. Under this section, one will need to provide the details of outward supplies which includes advance and net of goods returned during the current tax period.
Amendments in Outwards Supply details furnished in returns for earlier tax periods in Table No.6: Any change to be made to details of sales provided in previous returns is required to be stated here along with original details. Under this section, one will be able to rectify the incorrect details provided in Table 6 in previous returns.
Consolidated Statement of Advances paid/Adjusted on Account of Receipt of Supply: All advances paid for reverse charge supplies have to be specified here. Also, all advances paid on which tax was paid in the earlier period but invoice is received in the current period should be entered in Table 8. This amount will be reduced from the total tax liability. All amendments to be made to advances mentioned in the previous period’s return should also be entered.
TDS Credit received: Any TDS deducted by the supplier while making payment to the composition dealer has to be entered in this table. GSTIN of the deductor, Gross Invoice value and the TDS amount should be mentioned here.
Tax payable and paid: Total tax liability and the tax paid has to be specified in this table. IGST, CGST, SGST/UTGST and Cess have to be separately mentioned here.
Interest, Late Fee payable and paid Interest and late fees payable for late filing or late payment of GST have to be mentioned here, including details of payment actually made.
Refund claimed from Electronic cash ledger: Any refund of excess taxes paid can be claimed here. The refund has to be further segregated into tax, interest, penalty, fees, and others. If in case the tax liability of the composition dealer is below than the TDS deducted, one can get a refund of balancing amount. The amount which is available for refund will be auto-filled under this section.
Debit entries in cash ledger for tax/ interest payment (to be populated after payment of tax and submission of return): All GST payments made in cash reflect here. The payments have to be further segregated into tax paid through cash, interest paid and late fees paid.

Once all these details are filled in the sign off with a declaration that all information has been supplied and is correct. In addition, the GST Portal is also available with a GSTR-4 offline tool based on excel worksheets, for ease of GSTR-4 filing.

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GST Returns, Types of GST Returns, New GST Returns & Forms, Sahaj GST Returns, Sugam GST Returns, GSTR 1, GSTR 2, GSTR 3B, GSTR 5, GSTR 5A, GSTR 6, GSTR 7, GSTR 8, GSTR 9, GSTR 10, GSTR 11