TDS and TCS Returns: GSTR-7 and GSTR-8

Tax deducted at source by a government department, and tax collected at source by an e-commerce operator, end up in the same place: the supplier’s electronic cash ledger. The route there runs through two returns and an act by the supplier. The deductor files FORM GSTR-7, or the operator FORM GSTR-8. The supplier then accepts or rejects each entry on the portal and files a statement of its own. Until the supplier does that, nothing is credited. If the supplier rejects an entry, it comes back to the deductor or operator to correct in a later return. Both returns changed in 2024 and 2025. GSTR-7 became a compulsory monthly return and moved to invoice-level reporting. GSTR-8 gained a place-of-supply field and a table for sellers who are not registered.

Registration is covered in Registering as a Tax Deductor (TDS) and Registering as an E-Commerce Operator Collecting TCS.

GSTR-7: a return every month, by the tenth

The Finance (No. 2) Act, 2024 substituted section 39(3), and Notification No. 17/2024-Central Tax brought the change into force from 1 November 2024. It now reads: “Every registered person required to deduct tax at source under section 51 shall electronically furnish a return for every calendar month of the deductions made during the month”. Its proviso adds that the return is due “for every calendar month whether or not any deductions have been made”. The old text required a return only “for the month in which such deductions have been made”.

The due date moved from the Act to the rules at the same time. Notification No. 20/2024-Central Tax inserted the words “on or before the tenth day of the month succeeding the calendar month” into rule 66(1), with effect from 1 November 2024. The tax itself is still due by the same date under section 51(2), “within ten days after the end of the month in which such deduction is made”. The Commissioner can extend the return date under section 39(6). Notification No. 05/2025-Central Tax, for example, moved December 2024 to 12 January 2025.

The portal’s FAQ on GSTR-7 has not caught up with the Act. It still says that filing a nil return “is not mandatory”. Since 1 November 2024, section 39(3) says otherwise. What changed for nil months is the late fee, as explained below.

What a deductor needs before filing

• Payments made or credited to suppliers in the month where the contract value exceeds Rs 2,50,000. These come from the payment records. Section 51(1) fixes the threshold on “the total value of such supply, under a contract”.
• Each supplier’s GSTIN, and the invoice or document number, date and value.
• The amount paid that is liable to deduction. The form’s instruction 5 says this “shall be the amount excluding the Central tax, State tax/ Union territory tax, Integrated tax and cess, indicated in the invoice”, mirroring the Explanation to section 51(1).
• The tax head. Deduction is central and State tax for an intra-State supply, and integrated tax for an inter-State one. The proviso to section 51(1) rules out deduction where the supplier’s location and the place of supply are both in a State other than the deductor’s.
• Entries rejected by suppliers in earlier months. These appear in Table 4 for correction.
• The cash ledger balance. The portal’s FAQ says TDS “can be discharged through Electronic Cash Ledger only”.

The tables of GSTR-7

Notification No. 12/2024-Central Tax substituted Tables 3 and 4, and Notification No. 09/2025-Central Tax brought the change into force from 1 April 2025. Table 3 had been one line per deductee. It is now invoice by invoice: deductee GSTIN, invoice or document number, date and value, the amount paid that is liable to deduction, and the integrated, central and State tax deducted. Table 4 amends earlier entries. It holds the original and revised details side by side, including a revised GSTIN. Table 5 shows the tax deducted and paid, and Table 6 the interest and late fee. Table 7 claims a refund from the cash ledger, and Table 8 shows the debits made.

The portal’s FAQ adds the validations. Values cannot be negative. Central tax must equal State tax. Total tax cannot exceed the amount paid. An invoice the deductee has already accepted cannot be amended.

Portal steps for GSTR-7

The portal’s user manual and FAQ describe the sequence:

1. The filer logs in and opens Services > Returns > Returns Dashboard, selects the period, and prepares GSTR-7 online. An offline tool is also available.
2. The filer adds invoices in Table 3. In Table 4, rejected entries appear under the tab “Rejected by Deductee”, and the filer’s own earlier entries under “Uploaded by Deductor”.
3. For return periods from September 2025, the filer clicks GENERATE SUMMARY. Earlier periods use COMPUTE LIABILITY.
4. The filer pays the tax, interest and any late fee from the cash ledger, creating a challan if the balance is short. The form’s instruction 4 says “return cannot be filed without full payment of liability”.
5. The filer previews the draft and files with DSC or EVC through the authorised signatory.

Once the return is filed, the portal issues an ARN and sends the Table 3 and 4 details to each deductee for action.

The certificate: GSTR-7A

Section 51(3), as substituted by the Finance Act, 2020 from 1 January 2021, says only that a certificate “shall be issued in such form and in such manner as may be prescribed”. The same Act omitted the old late fee for failing to issue one. Rule 66(3) makes the certificate, FORM GSTR-7A, “available electronically to the deductee on the common portal … on the basis of the return”. The portal’s FAQ says it is generated once the deductee accepts the details and files. No signature is needed. Both sides download it from Services > User Services > View/Download Certificates.

GSTR-8: the operator’s monthly statement

Section 52(4) requires every operator that collects tax to furnish a monthly statement “within ten days after the end of such month”. The statement covers supplies made through it, including supplies returned, and the amount collected. Its first proviso lets the Commissioner extend the date: Notification No. 06/2025-Central Tax moved December 2024 to 12 January 2025. Rule 67(1) prescribes FORM GSTR-8. The duty attaches to an operator “who collects the amount”. The portal’s FAQ accordingly says GSTR-8 is needed only for a month in which tax was collected or rejected entries need amending.

An operator needs the following before filing:

• the month’s gross and returned supplies for each seller GSTIN and place of supply, from the platform’s settlement data
• supplies by sellers enrolled without registration, by enrolment number
• the amount collected, under each tax head
• entries rejected by sellers in earlier months

The current form, as amended by Notifications 38/2023, 52/2023 and 12/2024-Central Tax, has these tables:

• Table 3: supplies through the operator, in 3A (to registered persons) and 3B (to unregistered persons). Each line gives the seller’s GSTIN, the place of supply, the gross value, the value returned, the net amount liable to TCS and the tax collected. The place-of-supply column applies from 1 April 2025. The portal’s FAQ says the same place of supply cannot be selected twice for one GSTIN in a month.
• Table 3.1, from 1 October 2023: supplies by unregistered sellers, by enrolment number, with gross, returned and net values. No tax is shown, because no tax is collected on these supplies.
• Table 4 and its sub-tables: amendments, including entries rejected by sellers.
• The later tables show tax and interest payable and paid, late fee, any refund claimed from the cash ledger, and the cash ledger debits.

On the rate, the portal’s FAQ says the total collected must lie between 0.5 per cent and 1 per cent of the net amount from the July 2024 tax period, against exactly 1 per cent before that. The form’s instruction 2 says GSTR-8 can be filed “only when full TCS liability has been discharged”. The portal steps follow the GSTR-7 pattern: prepare online or offline, pay from the cash ledger, preview, and file with DSC or EVC.

The annual statement: GSTR-9B

Section 52(5) requires an annual statement “before the thirty first day of December following the end of such financial year”. Rule 80(2) names the form as FORM GSTR-9B. No form of that number is among the forms published with the CGST Rules on CBIC’s site, which run from GSTR-9A to GSTR-9C, and the portal’s user guide for returns has no section on it. As at 11 October 2026 there is no prescribed form in which to file the statement. Rule 80(1) excludes a person collecting under section 52 from GSTR-9, in its capacity as collector.

How the supplier claims the credit

Section 51(5) and section 52(7) both say the supplier “shall claim credit, in his electronic cash ledger”, of the amount reflected in the deductor’s return or the operator’s statement. Rules 66(2) and 67(2) make the details available on the portal “for claiming the amount … in his electronic cash ledger after validation”. The validation is the form “TDS and TCS Credit Received”. The portal’s manual for that form describes these steps:

1. The supplier opens Services > Returns > TDS and TCS credit received.
2. Each auto-populated row in the four tiles (TDS, TDS amendments, TCS, TCS amendments) is accepted or rejected. A remark is mandatory for a rejection. “Filing is not permitted without action on all rows”.
3. The supplier files the statement with DSC or EVC.

Accepted amounts are credited to the cash ledger “only after filing”. Rejected rows go to the “Rejected” tab of Table 4 in the deductor’s or operator’s next GSTR-7 or GSTR-8. The corrected entry then returns to the supplier, and the cycle repeats until it is accepted. The ledger is explained in The Three Electronic Ledgers.

Late fee and interest

Late fee is levied under section 47(1).

• GSTR-7: Notification No. 23/2024-Central Tax, from 1 November 2024, limits the late fee to Rs 25 a day under the CGST Act, with a total of no more than Rs 1,000 for a return. It waives the fee entirely “where the total amount of central tax deducted at source in the said month is nil”. The portal’s FAQ says the waiver applies “only for Nil Table 3”.
• GSTR-8: the Finance Act, 2022 added section 52 to section 47(1) from 1 October 2022. The portal charges late fee from the October 2022 period. No notification in CBIC’s list of Central Tax notifications reduces it, so the statutory Rs 100 a day, up to Rs 5,000, applies.

Interest is a separate charge. A deductor that pays late owes interest under section 51(6), at the rate in section 50(1). The portal’s FAQ on GSTR-8 says interest is charged on TCS paid after the due date. The amounts and the three-year bar are covered in Late Returns: Late Fee, Interest, the Three-Year Bar and Notices.

After filing

Neither return can be revised. Corrections go through Table 4 of a later return. For GSTR-7, the limit is 30 November following the end of the financial year, under section 39(9). For GSTR-8, it is the same date or the annual statement, if earlier, under section 52(6). An entry the supplier has accepted cannot be amended at all. A return or statement more than three years past its due date cannot be filed, under section 39(11) for GSTR-7 and section 52(15) for GSTR-8. The detail is in Correcting Mistakes in Returns.

The procedure in summary

1. Deductor: list the month’s payments under contracts above Rs 2,50,000 invoice by invoice, excluding tax, and deduct by tax head.
2. Pay the deduction from the cash ledger and file GSTR-7 by the tenth, including months with no deductions. Correct rejected entries in Table 4.
3. Operator: compile net supplies by seller and place of supply, list enrolled unregistered sellers, pay the TCS and file GSTR-8 by the tenth for any month in which tax was collected.
4. Supplier: open “TDS and TCS Credit Received”, accept or reject every row, and file it. Only then is the cash ledger credited.
5. Download GSTR-7A certificates from View/Download Certificates.
6. Watch the 30 November correction limit and the three-year bar.

The next guide covers the statement filed by embassies, UN bodies and other holders of a Unique Identity Number, GSTR-11.