All about New Statement of Input Tax Credit – GSTR-2B, now enabled on GST portal

The tax payers can now download the auto-drafted ITC Statement in FORM GSTR-2B for the month of July,2020 from the GST Portal. This will bring ease for tax payers in filing of GSTR-3B. How? Read on..

Introduction to GSTR-2B

Input tax credit statement in form GSTR-2B has been introduced which will be auto populated and wherein the data from GSTR-2A will be pulled. The data will be refined and in GSTR-2B which will provide eligible and ineligible Input Tax Credit (ITC) for each month and will remain constant for a period.

GSTR-2B shall be available to all the regular taxpayers. Every recipient can generate it on the basis of the GSTR-1, GSTR-5 and GSTR-6 furnished by their suppliers. The statement will clearly show document-wise details of ITC eligibility.

ITC information reflected in GSTR-2B will be covered from the filing date of GSTR-1 for the preceding month up to the filing date of GSTR-1 for the current month. For instance, GSTR-2B generated for September 2020 will contain documents filed by their suppliers from 12 a.m. on 12th September, 2020 up to 11:59 p.m. on 11th October, 2020.

Importance and benefits of GSTR 2B

The data in GSTR-2B will allow taxpayers to conveniently reconcile ITC with their own books of accounts and records. It will also help them in easier identification of documents to ensure the following:

• ITC is not availed twice against a particular document.
• The tax credit is reversed as per the GST law in their GSTR-3B, wherever required.
• GST is correctly paid on a reverse charge basis for the applicable documents, including import of services.

When will GSTR-2B be available?

GSTR-2B will be available from July 2020 onwards. It can be generated by recipient taxpayers once a month on the 12th for the previous month.

The timelines for the generation of GSTR-2B can be checked out on the government portal under the ‘View Advisory’ tab.

How to access GSTR-2B on the GST portal?

The following are the steps to access GSTR 2B:

Step 1: Log in to the GST portal.

Taxpayer must use his/her credentials to login.

Step 2: Navigate to the ‘Returns Dashboard’.

Step 3: Select the relevant tax period.

Select the month and year.

Step 4: Click on the ‘GSTR-2B’ tab.

Step 5: Click on the ‘Download’ button to save the statement on your system.

Contents and features of GSTR-2B

The input tax credit on purchases from any regular taxpayers and non-resident taxable persons will be available. Further, the input tax credit distributed by the input service distributor shall also be available.

The contents of GSTR-2B is as follows:

1. Summary statement showing ITC available and non-available for every section.
2. Advisory for every section that clarifies the kind of action that taxpayers must take.
3. Document-wise details such as invoices, credit notes, debit notes, etc. to view and download.
4. Cut-off dates and advisory for generating and using GSTR-2B.
5. Import of goods and import from SEZ units/developers (available from GSTR 2B of August 2020 onwards).

The input tax credit will marked as not available in the following two scenarios:

• Where the time limit to avail input tax credit on an invoice or debit note has expired under section 16(4) of the CGST Act (earlier of 30th September of the year following the financial year or date of filing annual return).
• The state of the supplier and place of supply is the same, whereas the recipient is located in another state.

The notable features of GSTR-2B are as follows:

1. To view and download the summary statement as a PDF file.
2. Can obtain section-wise details or complete download of ITC instantly.
3. Availability of section-wise advisory.
4. Allows text search for all the generated records.
5. Option to view, filter and sort data, as required.
6. Hide/view the columns as per the user’s convenience.
7. Where the file contains more than 1,000 records, options for a full download of GSTR-2B and the advanced search is available.
8. An email or an SMS will be sent to the taxpayer informing about the generation of GSTR 2B.

Comparison of GSTR-2A with GSTR-2B

The comparison of GSTR-2A and GSTR 2B is tabulated below:

For ready reference of our readers one actual auto drafted ITC statement in Form GSTR-2B for the month of July, 2020 is given below:

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Frah Saeed

Frah Saeed is a law graduate specializing in the core field of indirect taxes and is the Co-founder of taxwallah.com. She has authored many publications on GST and is into full-time consultancy on GST to big corporates. She as a part of taxwallah.com heads a team comprising of Chartered Accountants and Advocates and plays a key role in our mission to disseminate GST knowledge to all.