SELF-ASSESSMENT UNDER GST

Every registered person shall self-assess the taxes payable under this Act and furnish a return for each tax period as specified under section 39. [Section 59]

Self Assessment

As per section 59 of the CGST Act, 2017, self-assessment is required to be done by every registered taxable person himself, in relation to taxable supply made, on the basis of accounts and records available with him and furnish return under section 39 for each period and pay declared tax thereon.

Accordingly, following are the important points to be noted for the purpose of self assessment:

1. Self-assessment shall be done by every registered person.
2. It involves self assessment of taxes payable.
3. To self assess implies assessment by the tax payer himself.
4. Tax return has to be filed for each tax period in terms of section 39 of CGST Act, 2017.

It may be noted that provisions relating to furnishing of returns are provided in section 39 of CGST Act, 2017 read with sections 37 to 48 of CGST Act, 2017 in Chapter IX of the Act, relating to various returns to be filed by the taxpayer. Further, rules 59 to 84 of CGST Rules, 2017 provides for forms and manner of filing different returns under the Act.

List of returns to be filed under section 39 of CGST Act, 2017

The returns to be filed by registered person, inter alia, include the following :

Conditions Precedent

1. Only registered person is required to self assess under section 59 of CGST Act, 2017.
2. Self assessment does not apply to unregistered person.
3. Obligations to determine tax payable and filed applicable return are co-terminus.
4. There is no departmental assessment in case of self – assessment.
5. Since it is a case of self assessment, burden of proof of such assessment lies on the taxpayer only unlike in case of suppression.

Verification of Self Assessment

Though, self assessment does not involve any assessment on the part of revenue authorities, a wrong self assessment may have the consequences of attracting the following provisions from Department’s  point of view.

Stages in self assessment

The self assessment under GST involves the following steps on the part of taxpayer:

Relevant  judicial pronouncements

• In  M/S. JAAP AUTO DISTRIBUTORS VERSUS THE ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS [2017 (10) TMI 881 - MADRAS HIGH COURT], where the petitioner challenged the assessment order on the ground that officer  passing order imposing 18% IGST on imported goods (tiller blades) had no  jurisdiction to assess, it was held that since petitioner by himself was asking assessing officer to issue a speaking order, thereby admitting jurisdiction of such officer to assess IGST on imported goods, hence jurisdiction ground could not be raised at this stage.

Further, the court observed that a writ court cannot make a fact finding exercise to ascertain, which would be an appropriate entry under which the goods are to be classified. Infact, under the normal course, in respect of classification disputes, the High Court cannot entertain an appeal against an order passed by the Cestat as the appeal lies to the Hon'ble Supreme Court in respect of classification issues or matters concerning rate of tax. Court did not venture into as what would be the appropriate classification of the goods as this exercise being a factual exercise has to be necessarily agitated before the appellate authority.

• In DELPHI TVS TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED VERSUS THE ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER (ST) , THE ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER (ST) [2019 (9) TMI 572 - MADRAS HIGH COURT], Assessing Officer passed the assessment order on assessee and  the assessee filed a writ petition challenging the said order on the ground that it was not given time to file objections in response to notices of proposals dated 21.02.2019 for the period 20.12.2013 to 2016-17.

The assessee through their letters dated 15.03.2019, requested the Assessing Officer to give them time upto 15^th April, 2019 for submission of reply by stating that they need to collect more data to justify their time and that they are also preparing GSTR-2A reconciliation against their input credit taken in monthly return.

Since the assessee had sought for time to file its objections, but the order of assessment was passed simply by confirming proposals in absence of any objection from assessee, the court remitted back the matter to Assessing Officer to redo assessment after receiving reply from the assessee.