Archive Your GST Records Before Data Deletion:
It is crucial for business owners to take immediate action to avoid future regret. Begin archiving your GST records as you have done for other taxes prior to 2017.
According to Section 39(11) of the CGST Act, 2017, which takes effect on October 1, 2023, taxpayers are restricted from submitting GST returns beyond three years from the due date, as outlined in Notification No. 28/2023. Furthermore, the GST portal has established a data retention policy that limits the availability of taxpayers’ return data to seven years.
Beginning in August 2024, the GST portal commenced the archiving of returns that exceed this seven-year period. For example, the data for July 2017 was archived on August 1, 2024, followed by the data for August 2017 on September 1, 2024.
This archiving will proceed on a monthly basis, with data for September 2017 scheduled for archiving on October 1, 2024, and continuing in this manner. Taxpayers are strongly encouraged to download their return data from the GST portal for any future needs, as information older than seven years will no longer be retrievable.
The official notification dated 24th September 2024 related to archival of GST returns read as under:
1. Section 39 (11) of the CGST Act, 2017, implemented w.e.f 01-10-2023 vide Notification No. 28/2023 – Central Tax dated 31th July, 2023, provides that the taxpayers shall not be allowed file their GST returns after the expiry of a period of three years from the due date of furnishing the said return.
2. Further, as per GST portal data policy, data for view of taxpayer to be retained for seven years only. Therefore, the same data policy is being implemented on the GST portal. Thus, return data will not be available to view beyond 7 years for taxpayers.
3. Accordingly, on 01st August 2024 return filed for July 2017 has been archived and on 01st September 2024, data for August 2017 has been archived. Further, this data archival is going to be a monthly activity hence on 01st October 2024 data of September 2017 shall be taken down from the GST portal and so on so forth.
4. Hence, hereby the taxpayers are advised to download their relevant data from the GST portal for any future reference, if required.
To read the official notification, click here.
Archive Your GST Records Before Data Deletion
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