A return is a document containing details of income which a taxpayer is required to file with the tax administrative authorities. This is used by tax authorities to calculate tax liability.

Under GST, a registered dealer has to file GST returns that include:

• Purchases
• Sales
• Output GST (On sales)
• Input tax credit (GST paid on purchases)

In the GST regime, any regular business has to file two monthly returns and one annual return. This amounts to 26 returns in a year.

The number of GST filings vary for quarterly GSTR-1 filers. The number of GST filings online for them is 17 in a year.

There are separate returns required to be filed by special cases such as composition dealers whose number of GST filings is 5 in a year.