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GSTR 5: Tax Filing For Non-Resident Indians, Format And Eligibility

Every non-resident Indian who is eligible for filing GST returns in India needs to fill out form GSTR 5 for tax purposes. A non-resident Indian is someone who resides in India for less than one hundred and eighty-two days aka 182 days or less. Non-resident Indians are eligible for voting, and any income earned in India is taxable in India.

All businesses conducted in India by an NRI that comes under the governing body of GST need to fill out GSTR form no 5. The form can either be filled online or at the tax facilitation centre. The document must contain all the necessary details about inward supplies such as purchases and outward supplies such as sales that are made by the taxpayer or the registered business entity.

What is GSTR 5?

GSTR 5 is a monthly registration that needs to be filled while conducting business. The special aspect about GSTR 5 is that it only needs to be filled by non-resident individuals. A mandatory monthly return needs to be filed irrespective of the total monthly sales or revenue. All the details regarding the business, sales and purchases need to be mentioned on this form.

When to file for GSTR 5?
GSTR 5 is a monthly mandate form. The return needs to be filed under two circumstances, which are:

Within a period of 7 days after the date of expiry of registration
The form needs to be filled monthly, before the 20th of the following month
Example: If Pioneers Business Ltd. is a business owned by a non-Indian resident, but conducting business in India and taxable for the same, the GSTR form 5 for the month of January 2021 needs to be filled by a maximum of the 20th of February 2021.

What are the Pre-requisites of filing for Form GSTR 5?

GSTR 5 is a special form since it is to be filled only by NRIs. Due to this special characteristic, the form has a few pre-requisites that need to be fulfilled by the taxable person or entity filling the form.

Some of the following conditions are:

  • The registered business entity or individual has to be a non-resident of India who does not have a business establishment in India under the same name
  • The registered business entity or individual needs to have a temporary business licence that grants them the permission to conduct business activities and transactions in India 

What happens if there is a delay in filing for GSTR 5?

In case the business entity or registered individual fails to file for taxes under form GSTR 5 in time there is a penalty that needs to be paid due to the delay in filing the forms.
A delay in all these payments can lead to penalties and interest due on the tax payable amount at 18% per annum. The interest has to be calculated on the taxpayer’s amount of outstanding taxes that need to be paid.

The period of delay payments will be from the 21st of the following month, (i.e. the month that the form needs to be filled) to the day of the payment when the tax is actually filed. The maximum penalty charged can be INR 5000 with INR 50 for late fee and INR 20 for nil return.

What happens if no returns are filed for GSTR 5?

Another consequence is that since the current month’s returns are not filed then the business entity cannot file returns for the coming months also. That is, the individual can only file for returns in the coming months if the current months GSTR 5 forms are filled.

How to file for GSTR 5 and what details are required to be entered?

The GSTR 5 can be filed online as well as offline, however, the taxpayer wishes to fill the form. However, filling the form online is convenient and can be via just a few simple steps. On average, the total form has around 14 entries that need to be filled by the taxpayer for the form to be complete and submitted.

Some of the details that need to be filled in are:

  1. GSTIN: Here the taxpayer needs to mention the unique 15 digit PAN card related GST Identification Number that has been assigned to the taxpayer as an individual or business entity.
  2. Name of the taxpayer: Here the taxpayer needs to mention the name in which the business is registered and the official name of the entity that is used for business and approved by the GST governing body.
  3. Inputs or Capital Goods received from Overseas: In case the business has imported any goods from overseas those details need to be entered here, along with other relevant data that is important. Details along with the 8 digit HSN codes also need to be mentioned.
  4. Amendments to details furnished previously: In case any of the previous GSTR 5 forms require some amendments or edits needs to be made to the previous forms, those entries need to be made under this heading.
  5. Taxable Outward Supplies: Here the taxpayer needs to furnish all sales and outward supplies that have been made in India during the period of filing for the taxes. The taxpayer needs to mention all the details of the buyers along with their GST identification numbers and other requirements.
  6. Taxable outward inter-state supplies for values more than INR 2.5 lakhs: The taxpayer needs to mention the details of all interstate transactions wherein the value of the transactions exceeds INR 2.5 lakhs.
  7. Taxable supplies to unregistered business entities: In case the taxpayer conducts business transactions with unregistered GST entities or any other transactions that do not come under table 6, they need to be included here along with all the details mentioned.
  8. Amendments to outward taxable supplies furnished in previous periods: In previous periods in the case where any changes or amendments need to be made to table 6, these changes can be made here. These could be B2B outward supplies, B2C interstate etc.
  9. Amendments to taxable outward supplies to unregistered people: Any amendments for B2C supplies to unregistered business entities need to be amended in this option.
  10. Total tax liability: This table calculates the total tax liability on account of outward supplies and amendments made to supplies for the current tax period.
  11. Tax Payable and Paid: This table mentions the total tax that needs to be paid by the taxpayer and in case of any advance tax that has been paid. This tax needs to be calculated by all the data provided in the above sections.
  12. Interest late fee and other fines: in case the business taxpayer is liable to pay any interest or late fees, fines need to be mentioned in this table.
  13. Refund claimed from electronic cash ledger: Any refunds the taxpayer has received in their bank account from the electronic cash ledger need to be mentioned in this section.
  14. Debit entries in electronic cash ledger: This table includes debit entries in the cash ledger and is to be filled by payment of tax and submission of return.

Once all these tables and sections are filled, the taxpayer should review the information mention and check if all details entered are correct. Once the form is submitted no edits can be made to form. Hence the taxpayer should cross-check all the information before submitting the form.

Once the information is verified, the taxpayer can submit the form and that’s it!