Can taxpayer pay tax by 28th August now? New notifications issued by CBEC enabling taxpayers to claim the transitional ITC, has created a lot of confusion among the assessee. Although, the procedure has been made very clear in the notification issued still the ambiguity prevails.

Answer - To start with Tax has to be paid by 20th August 2017 in any case. Now the question in the discussion is about how the return and TRAN-1 form will be filed.

For this, we can separate the taxpayers into two categories:

  1. Those who do not have any transitional ITC or have but are not willing to avail it in the return of July: Taxpayers in this category are required to pay tax and file return by 20th August 2017. They can file TRAN-1 till next month.
  1. Those who have transitional ITC and are willing to avail it in the return of July: Taxpayers in this category has to deposit the net amount of tax in their cash ledger by 20th August 2017. They then need to file the TRAN-1 form, which will be available on GST portal from 21st After filing TRAN-1, they need to file GSTR-3B. Taxpayers are required to calculate the net tax amount payable after adjusting the Input tax credit available for the month of July and transitional ITC against the outward tax liability for the month of July.

Be careful while calculating the amount, because if later on at time of filing GSTR-3B, the amount payable turns out be in excess of the amount paid initially, the difference shall be payable along with interest.