Goods and Services Tax compliance is built around a small set of recurring returns. Understanding what each one does removes most of the anxiety around monthly filing.

GSTR-1: your outward supplies

GSTR-1 reports every sale you made in the period. It is filed monthly by larger taxpayers and quarterly under the QRMP scheme. What you report here flows directly into your customers' input tax credit, so accuracy matters to your client relationships and not just to the department.

GSTR-3B: the summary and payment return

GSTR-3B is a self-declared summary of outward supplies, input tax credit claimed and tax payable. This is where you actually pay. Since input tax credit is now restricted to invoices your suppliers have reported, reconciling GSTR-2B against your purchase register before filing 3B is essential.

GSTR-9 and 9C: the annual return

The annual return consolidates the year and is where mismatches between your books and your filings surface. Businesses above the prescribed turnover threshold also file a reconciliation statement in GSTR-9C.

The practical advice

Reconcile monthly rather than annually. A discrepancy caught in the month it arises takes minutes to fix; the same discrepancy found during the annual return can mean reversing credit with interest.