Executive Summary
GST is unforgiving in one specific way: the returns are sequential. A month you skip is not a month you can come back to later, because everything after it is blocked until it is cleared. And because your GSTR-1 is what puts your invoice into your customer's input credit statement, a filing you treat as your own administrative problem is quietly your customer's cash flow problem too.
4 Services Under One Engagement
Grouped by the problem they solve, so you can find the one you actually came for.
Registration & Ongoing Filing
Getting registered correctly, then keeping the monthly chain unbroken.
When The Department Writes
Notices, mismatches and show-cause proceedings, answered by the firm that files your returns.
Related
Adjacent work that most GST clients need in the same year.
The Late Fee Is The Smallest Part.
What actually costs you is what a single unfiled return does to the next month and to your customers.
18%
Interest On Tax Paid Late
Per annum on the net tax payable, from the day after the due date until the tax is actually paid. Automatic, and not waived on request.
₹50
Per Day, Per Return
₹25 CGST and ₹25 SGST where there is liability, ₹20 a day for a nil return. The ceiling is set by turnover, not flat: ₹2,000 where aggregate turnover is up to ₹1.5 crore, ₹5,000 from ₹1.5 crore to ₹5 crore, ₹10,000 above that, and ₹500 for a nil return. It applies to every return you are behind on.
Blocked
You Cannot File The Next One
Returns are sequential. One missed month bars the following month until it is cleared, so a single gap quietly becomes a queue.
Denied
Your Customer Loses Their Credit
An unfiled GSTR-1 means your invoice never reaches your customer's GSTR-2B and they cannot claim input credit on it. This is what costs you the relationship.
Cancelled
Registration Can Be Struck Off
Continuous default is a ground for cancellation. Revocation is an application with a window, and trading meanwhile is trading unregistered.
Backdated
Late Registration Reaches Backwards
Liability starts the day you crossed the threshold, not the day you registered - and you cannot go back and collect it from customers already billed.
Registration, Then The Rhythm.
01
Assess & Register
Whether you must register or would benefit from registering voluntarily, regular versus composition, then the application and any officer query answered before it becomes a rejection.
02
Set The Cadence
Monthly, or quarterly under QRMP where turnover is within ₹5 crore. Invoice series, HSN and SAC mapping and ledger structure set so returns fall out of your records.
03
File & Reconcile
GSTR-1 by the 11th, GSTR-3B by the 20th, and input credit matched to GSTR-2B before each filing so a supplier who has not filed is chased the same month.
04
Close The Year
GSTR-9, and GSTR-9C where turnover requires it, by 31 December. Discrepancies surface through the year rather than in December.
Registration Is Not Only About Turnover.
Suppliers Of Goods Above ₹40 Lakh
Haryana is a normal category state, so the higher threshold applies. Aggregate turnover is measured across everything on the same PAN, not per branch.
Service Providers Above ₹20 Lakh
The lower threshold catches consultants and agencies at half the turnover a trader reaches it at, which regularly takes people by surprise.
Anyone Supplying Inter-State
Compulsory from the first rupee for inter-state supply of goods, with no threshold at all. The most commonly missed trigger of the four.
E-Commerce And Reverse Charge
Selling through a marketplace, operating one, carrying a reverse charge liability or acting as a casual taxable person all require registration irrespective of turnover.