GST for online sellers: registration, returns and due dates
Selling on Amazon, Flipkart or Meesho brings a few GST tasks that sellers in a shop do not have. This overview covers registration, the returns you file, how often, by when, and what happens if you are late.
1. Do you need a GST registration?
For a shop, GST registration is needed once turnover crosses a threshold (₹40 lakh for most goods sellers, lower in some states). Online sellers are treated differently:
- Selling goods through a marketplace that collects TCS has traditionally required registration regardless of turnover.
- Since October 2023, small sellers below the threshold may sell within their own state through a marketplace without registering, using an enrolment number, subject to conditions. They cannot sell to other states this way.
- If you want to sell across India, you need a GST registration.
Composition scheme sellers can also sell goods through marketplaces within their own state, but cannot make inter-state sales.
2. The returns you file
| Return | What it reports | Who files |
|---|---|---|
| GSTR-1 | Your sales: by state and rate for consumers, invoice by invoice for businesses, plus HSN, documents and marketplace details. | Every regular taxpayer |
| GSTR-3B | A summary of sales tax, input tax credit and the tax you pay. | Every regular taxpayer |
| TCS credit | Accepting the TCS your marketplaces collected. | Marketplace sellers, on the portal |
| GSTR-9 | Annual return. | Mandatory above ₹2 crore turnover, optional below |
File a return even for a period with no sales. A nil return is quick to file and avoids late fees.
3. Monthly or quarterly (QRMP)
If your turnover is up to ₹5 crore, you can choose QRMP: file GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B every quarter instead of every month.
- You still pay tax monthly, for the first two months of each quarter, using challan PMT-06. You can pay a fixed amount based on past returns, or work out the actual tax.
- You can upload B2B invoices monthly through the Invoice Furnishing Facility (IFF), so your business buyers get their credit sooner.
- Many marketplace sellers with mostly consumer sales choose QRMP to file less often.
4. Due dates
| Return | Monthly filers | Quarterly (QRMP) filers |
|---|---|---|
| GSTR-1 | 11th of the next month | 13th of the month after the quarter |
| IFF (optional) | — | 13th of the next month, for the first two months |
| PMT-06 payment | — | 25th of the next month, for the first two months |
| GSTR-3B | 20th of the next month | 22nd or 24th after the quarter, depending on your state |
Due dates are sometimes extended by notification. Check the GST portal close to each deadline.
5. TCS collected by marketplaces
Amazon, Flipkart and Meesho collect 0.5% of your net taxable sales as TCS and deposit it in your name. After you accept it on the GST portal, it sits in your electronic cash ledger and pays your GSTR-3B tax.
6. Late fees and interest
- Late fees are charged per day for each late GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B, with a lower rate for nil returns and a maximum cap.
- Interest at 18% a year is charged on tax paid late, from the due date until payment.
- A late GSTR-1 also delays your business buyers’ input tax credit.
7. A simple monthly routine
- In the first days of the month, download last month’s tax reports from each marketplace.
- Prepare GSTR-1 from them and check the totals against each marketplace’s TCS report.
- File GSTR-1 by the 11th (or the 13th after the quarter).
- Accept your TCS credit, check the auto-filled GSTR-3B, add input tax credit and pay.
- File GSTR-3B by its due date, and keep the reports and filing receipts.