The official statement clarified that while the new deadline is 25 August, those assesses who want to take credit for the taxes they have paid in the earlier regime for meeting their final GST liability, the deadline for filing returns would be 28 August. Even they, however, have to remit their taxes by 25 August, taking into account the tax credits they are eligible for. A major test of GST’s successful implementation would be the ease of filing taxes, matching of the invoices of suppliers and buyers and settlement of tax credits. “Due to the last minute GST return filing rush, the GSTN developed some technical snag because of which the taxpayers were not able to pay tax and file their returns,” said Abhishek Jain, tax partner, EY, adding that the five-day extension of deadline was appropriate. Finance ministry also stated that there were requests for deadline extension from states which are hit with floods, and from Jammu & Kashmir.

Source: Mint August 19, 2017 14:37 UTC