The government has notified a new return form for goods and services tax (GST) that will have to filed for the full year.

The normal taxpayers will need to file GSTR-9 return form while composition taxpayers will have GSTR-9A. The last date for filing the annual return form for 2017-18 is December 31.

GST, which subsumed multiple central and state taxes such as value-added tax, entry tax, octroi, purchase tax, excise duty, services tax, countervailing duty, was rolled out from July 1, 2017.

Taxpayers were from the beginning required to file an annual return besides the monthly and quarterly returns, but the annual format was not notified following compliance and IT issues.

“The long-awaited annual return format is now released. This looks simpler from the earlier draft return format which was recommended to the government," said Anita Rastogi, partner, PwC.

"There was an apprehension that the annual return date may be pushed since the format was not freezed by government till now. It is critical for tax payers to ensure that all the data required for annual return be collated along with reconciliations,” she said.

The first annual filing will cover the period from July 1to March 31. Following complaints of complicated and cumbersome filing, the GST Council had allowed businesses to file the summary return form GSTR 3B and had set up a committee under Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Modi to look at the software glitches as also compliance issues. Nandan Nilekani was also roped in for designing a new return format.

The Council had in its 27th meeting held on May 4 approved the basic principles of GST return design.

It approved key features and new format of returns on July 21.

The annual return form for normal taxpayers has been divided into six parts with 19 tables which includes detailed information related to outward supplies, inward supplies, ITC availed, ITC reversed, ineligible ITC, particulars of demand and refund, HSN summary of outward supplies and HSN summary of inward supplies of the transactions declared in returns filed during the financial year ending March 2018.