A DSC replaces a hand-written signature and it is mandatory for companies and Limited Liability Partnership (LLPs), and optional for other taxpayers to sign and file returns in the GST Common Portal. For this purpose either a Class 2 or a Class 3 digital signature certificate is required which comes with 1 year, 2 year and 3 year validity.
Class 2 or Class 3
A Digital Signature Certificate authenticates your identity electronically. It also provides you with a high level of security for your online transactions by ensuring absolute privacy of the information exchanged using a digital certificate. You can use certificates to encrypt information such that only the intended recipient can read it. You can digitally sign information to assure the recipient that it has not been changed in transit, and also verify your identity as the sender of the message.
You can use Digital Signature Certificates for the following:
A Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) is a safe digital key issued by the Government authorized certifying authorities to authenticate the certificate holder’s identity. DSC under GST is a necessary term for the taxpayer’s identification in every GST form.
DSC is required for GST registration and GST filing in India. The DSC is stored digitally in a pen drive. Thus, it can be used to digitally sign online applications, GST returns, and other GST forms. The present article will help you understand the importance of the DSC Requirement for GST and the procedure to register DSC on the GST Portal.
As mentioned above, A Digital Signature Certificate is a safe digital key issued by the certifying authorities to authenticate the certificate holder’s identity. DSC is like physical certificates, and the difference is DSC is in digital or electronic form, and Physical certificate is in paper form.
As per the Information Technology Act 2000, all corporate entities and LLPs must use DSC. Under GST, all documents submitted to the Government, including GST registration applications or documents uploaded to the GST common portal, must be digitally signed.
Hence under Goods and Services Tax (GST), the taxpayer must attach a valid for performing the following activities on the GST portal:
Class 3 Digital Signature Certificate is the highest level of DSC where a Registration Authority verifies a person’s identity. From the year 2021 onwards, usage of Class 2 DSC has been stopped. Class 3 Digital signatures have been made mandatory for all the use-cases involving both individuals and organizations. Now taxpayers can buy a Class 3 Digital Signature Certificate and use it for all signature needs across the GST.
Note: The same procedure can follow for updating the DSC on the GST Portal.
DSC is compulsory for all Public & Private Limited Companies, Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs), and Foreign Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) to file GST Returns.
Some of the significant benefits offered by DSCs that will make the GST filling work easy and smooth:
Before proceeding to file GST Return with the digital signature, kindly ensure the following:
Note: If an error message is showing, Kindly Restart the Emsigner,”; click on this error link to resolve the issue.
Now the taxpayer can view the status of the return by visiting the return dashboard and then selecting the particular period. Click on the VIEW GST return to download the PDF copy of the return already filed.