The Government has decided today to extend the due dates of filing of Form GSTR-9 (Annual Return) and Form GSTR-9C (Reconciliation Statement) for Financial Year 2017-18 to 31^st  December 2019 and for Financial Year 2018-19 to 31^st March 2020. The Government has also decided to simplify these forms by making various fields of these forms as optional.

Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) today notified the amendments regarding the simplification of GSTR-9 (Annual Return) and GSTR-9C (Reconciliation Statement) which inter-alia allow the taxpayers to not to provide split of input tax credit availed on inputs, input services and capital goods and to not to provide HSN level information of outputs or inputs, etc. for the financial year 2017-18 and 2018-19.

CBIC expects that with these changes and the extension of deadlines, all the GST taxpayers would be able to file their Annual Returns along with Reconciliation Statement for the financial years 2017-18 and 2018-19 in time. Various representations regarding challenges faced by taxpayers in filing of GSTR-9 and GSTR-9C were received on which by the Government has acted in a very responsive manner.

It may be noted that earlier the last date for filing of GSTR-9 and GSTR-9C for Financial Year 2017-18 was 30^th November 2019 while that for Financial Year 2018-19 was 31^st December 2019. Notifications implementing the decisions as above have been issued today

GST annual return simplification allows optional reporting fields to ease compliance and enable timely filing. The Government extended due dates for filing Forms GSTR-9 and GSTR-9C for the specified financial years and issued notifications. CBIC amended the forms to make various fields optional, allowing taxpayers to omit splits of input tax credit (inputs, input services, capital goods) and HSN-level reporting for outputs or inputs, aiming to reduce compliance burden and facilitate timely filing of annual returns and reconciliation statements.