Documentation in GST Refund:
Table of Contents:-
The taxpayers have been given the facility to claim GST Refund through an application Form GST RFD-01. The refund applicants are expected to upload certain documents in support of their claims. They are allowed to upload up to 4 documents each of size up to 5MB totaling up to 20MB. Here each document can contain any number of invoices, credit or debit notes until and unless the file size is less than or equal to 5MB. These documents play a crucial role in the GST Refund claiming process. And after the government has announced 50,000 crore overhaul for export tax refund scheme, it has become even more important for the taxpayers and especially exporters to know how to upload all the documents in the correct and suggested way.
Tips for uploading documents for GST Refund:
The Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) has provided the taxpayers with useful tips on how to upload various documents while claiming GST Refund. These tips must be kept in mind to upload docs without a glitch:
- To find the size of any document:
To find the size of the scanned document one has to follow the following procedure-
- In the “Document Viewer”, right click on the thumbnail of the scanned copy.
- Select “Properties”.
- Beside “File Size”, look at the number stating the size of the scanned document.
- If the scanned file is too large above 5MB then one or more methods can be used to reduce its size.
- Including multiple documents, invoices or credit/ debit notes in a single document:
Some scanners allow only one scan at a time while some scanners can scan multiple number of files and convert the images into one single file in PDF format. The taxpayers through these scanners can-
- Scan the debit/ credit notes and invoices.
- Sequentially, insert them in one single word document.
- Save the word document in a PDF format file.
- It is always advisable to keep the size of the scanned documents lower.
- Scanning a document to a file type of lower quality:
To lower the quality of the documents meant for GST Refund through scanning taxpayers need to follow the below steps-
- Open the “Scanning from The Scan Documents/ Picture/ Film” window.
- One can select the file type they want i.e., PDF, JPEG, JPG, PNG etc.
- PDF files are advisable, since they are smaller in size.
- Scanning a document to lower resolutions:
To lower the resolutions of a documents through scanning one has to take the below steps-
- Open the “Scanning from The Scan Documents/ Picture/ Film” window.
- Click on the “Scan Document Settings”.
- Now adjust the resolution (Dpi) of the file. It is recommended to use a resolution of 100 dpi by the GST department for GST Refund process.
- A lower resolution document can also be obtained by using the Grayscale scan mode or Line Art scan mode while scanning.
- While saving the file as PDF, select “Online Publishing” option as it reduces the file size.
- Reducing the size of the file and saving it as a PDF:
For saving a file as PDF and also reducing its size simultaneously, follow the given procedure-
- Open the scanned PDF file.
- Choose the “Advanced” optimizer for PDF.
- Click on the “Ok” button. Name the file and then save it.
- When saved the file size will reduce automatically.
- This command doesn’t work on the files that are already as small as possible.
- Scanning the invoices, documents and credit/ debit notes with mobile scanning apps:
Taxpayers can also use mobile based app scanners like “CAM SCANNER” app to scan documents and invoices and credit/ debit notes. Multiple documents can be scanned through these mobile applications. The taxpayers will then get the PDF in consolidated form, which can be uploaded with the GST Refund application.
