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Invoice Furnishing Facility

Filing of quarterly Form GSTR-1 return is available to a small registered person under GST. However, due to quarterly filing of details, there will be a delay in availing of an input tax credit for the recipient of such goods/ services. In order to remove such adversity, recently, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs has announced new Invoice Furnishing Facility.

The present article explains all the provisions governing the new facility; due dates for filing Invoice Furnishing Facility; steps for filing the same on GST portal and list of important points.

Provisions governing the Invoice Furnishing Facility

Entire rule 59 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017 is substituted vide notification no. 82/2020- Central Tax dated 10^th November 2020 [Central Goods and Services Tax (Thirteenth Amendment) Rules, 2020].

The new rule 59, effective from 1^st January 2021, covers provisions relating to Invoice Furnishing Facility. Following points briefly summarizes the new provisions-

• The facility is available to the registered person filing quarterly GSTR-1 return.
• Invoice Furnishing Facility is optional. The registered person has an option either to go for IFF or not.
• The registered person opting for Invoice Furnishing Facility will have to file the details of outward supplies in the following manner-

Period	Form for filing the details	Particulars
First month of the quarter	Invoice Furnishing Facility	B2B transactions
Second month of the quarter	Invoice Furnishing Facility	B2B transactions
Quarter	Form GSTR-1	All the transactions of the third month and pending transactions of the first and second month

• Under Invoice Furnishing Facility, the details must be submitted within a period of thirteen days from the end of the respective month.
• Details up to a cumulative value of INR 50 Lakhs for each month can be filed under IFF.
• Details once submitted via Invoice Furnishing Facility should not be re-submitted while filing Form GSTR-1.

Due dates for filing IFF and Form GSTR-1

The registered person who has opted IFF will have to follow below tabulated due dates for the respective months-

Period	Form	Due date
January	IFF	13th February
February	IFF	13th March
March	GSTR-1	13th April
April	IFF	13th May
May	IFF	13th June
June	GSTR-1	13th July
July	IFF	13th August
August	IFF	13th September
September	GSTR-1	13th October
October	IFF	13th November
November	IFF	13th December
December	GSTR-1	13th January

Steps for filing Invoice Furnishing Facility on GST portal

The registered person opting to file details via IFF will have to follow below steps on GST portal-

1. Access the site https://www.gst.gov.in/.
2. Click ‘Login’ and appropriately enter the following details-
   1. Username;
   2. Password; and
   3. Characters shown.
3. Click on ‘Services’ and from the drop-down list select Returns and Returns Dashboard, respectively.
4. Select relevant ‘Financial Year’ and ‘Period’ and click SEARCH.
5. Table covering ‘Details of the outward supplies of goods or services – Invoice Furnishing Facility – Optional’ will appear.
6. Select ‘PREPARE ONLINE’ for filing IFF via online mode. Whereas, select ‘PREPARE OFFLINE’ for filing IFF via offline mode.
7. Submit details, as applicable.
8. Submit IFF either using DSC or via EVC.

List of some important points

• Invoice Furnishing Facility is optional.
• The facility is effective from 1^st January 2021.
• The details/ data to be provided while filing IFF is summarized hereunder-

Table	Corresponding information to be furnished
Table 4A; 4B; 4C and 6B; 6C – B2B Invoices	Details of goods/ services or both sold to the registered taxable person
Table 9B – Credit or Debit Notes (Registered)	Details of credit notes or debit notes issued to the registered taxable person
Table 9A – Amended B2B invoices	Amendments relating to details of outwards supplies to the registered taxable person covering earlier tax periods.
Table 9C – Amended Credit or Debit Notes (Registered)	Amendments relating to details of credit notes or debits notes issued to the registered taxable person covering earlier tax periods.

• Details of B2B transactions furnished via IFF will be correspondingly reflected in Form GSTR-2A; Form GSTR-2B; Form GSTR-4A or Form GSTR-6A of the recipient of goods/services or both.

Summary of Invoice Furnishing Facility

1. The Invoice Furnishing Facility is available to the registered person who is filing details of outward supplies in Form GSTR-1 on a quarterly basis.
2. It is not mandatory to opt under IFF.
3. The registered person opting for IFF has to file B2B invoice details for the first and second month of the quarter via IFF. IFF is not to be filed for the third month.
4. The IFF filer must file quarterly return in Form GSTR-1.
5. Quarterly return in Form GSTR-1 will cover all the invoice details of the third month of the quarter and pending details of first and second month of the quarter.
6. Details already furnished in IFF is not to be re-furnished in Form GSTR-1 return.