When a GSTR-1 is really nil, how to file it by SMS under rule 67A, what a late one costs, and the marketplace statement that says it is not nil.
Nil means nothing in any table, not nothing sold
A GSTR-1 is the statement of your outward supplies for a tax period, which section 37(1) of the CGST Act asks of a registered person for every period, a quiet one included. A month with no sales does not remove the return. It changes what goes in it.
Rule 67A of the CGST Rules (Notification 58/2020-Central Tax, from 1 July 2020) lets a nil GSTR-1 be filed by SMS, and its explanation says what nil is: a GSTR-1 with nil or no entry in every one of its tables. The portal’s own help on nil filing spells that out as four absences in the period:
- No outward supply: taxable, nil-rated, exempt or non-GST, and that includes zero-rated supplies, deemed exports and supplies on which the buyer pays the tax under reverse charge.
- No credit note or debit note, including one against an invoice of an earlier month.
- No amendment to anything reported for an earlier period.
- No advance received for services, and none adjusted against a supply.
A month with no sales is not always nil
A month with one credit note is not nil. The common case for a marketplace seller is a month with no new orders in which a buyer returned something sold the month before: a sales return is documented as a credit note, and a credit note has a table of its own. The same goes for a correction to last month’s return, which is an amendment, and for an invoice raised and then cancelled, which still has a row in Table 13, the document summary, because that table counts cancelled documents as well as issued ones.
Before a period is recorded as nil, fynxIQ asks for five ticks, one for each thing that would put an entry in a table:
- No outward supply was made in the period: taxable, nil-rated, exempt or non-GST.
- No credit note or debit note was issued, including against an earlier period’s invoice.
- Nothing from an earlier period needs amending.
- No advance was received or adjusted.
- No invoice, note or challan was issued and then cancelled; Table 13 would otherwise have a row.
The portal’s TCS statement can show that it is not nil
Your ticks are your word, and there is a second witness. Every marketplace that collects tax at source files a monthly statement of the supplies made through it, the GSTR-8, under section 52(4) of the CGST Act. What Amazon, Flipkart, Meesho or Myntra declared against your GSTIN then shows in the portal’s TDS and TCS credit received statement, under Returns. If a marketplace reported a sale of yours for the month, the portal already holds a figure, filed by the operator, that contradicts a nil GSTR-1.
So the nil path on fynxIQ starts with files, not with the ticks. Drop the statement for the period, as Excel or PDF, and the checks run with nil declared:
- A marketplace row for the period whose net value is not zero is a blocker. It names each marketplace and its amount, and the declaration stays closed while it stands. The Excel form names every operator; the PDF form carries one total, and a total that is not zero stops it the same way.
- A marketplace report or sales register dropped in that contains a supply is a blocker too. It says how many lines were read, which tables they would have filled and the net taxable value. A credit note against last month in a marketplace report is caught here.
- With no statement at all you can still declare nil, under a warning that the declaration rests on your word alone.
fynxIQ checks that nil is true before it records it
There is no JSON for a nil month: the portal files nil through a tick box or an SMS. What fynxIQ gives you instead is a check that nothing you drop in contradicts nil, and a record that you declared it.
- On the prepare screen, once a GST profile is added and before anything is dropped in, choose Declare a nil return, beside Nothing sold this period? The screen becomes three steps: Files, Checks and Declare nil.
- In Declare nil, check whose return it is and choose the month, or the quarter if the profile files quarterly.
- Go back to Files and drop the TDS and TCS credit received statement for the period, with anything else you have for it. Read what Checks says.
- Tick the five confirmations. Record the nil return opens only when all five are ticked and no blocker stands. Not nil after all clears the screen so the return can be prepared normally.
- Once it is recorded, the step shows the SMS to send and the portal route, with your GSTIN and period filled in.
The record keeps the declaration, and the ARN once you add it
The declaration goes into the filing history as a nil return, with nothing taxable and no tax. In a practice workspace the board shows the client as nil for the period, nil counts as done in each staff member’s workload, and the activity log names who recorded it.
The ARN is the one fact fynxIQ cannot learn on its own. In a practice workspace, when the portal sends it, type it against the GSTR-1 for that period on the board, with the date. The period then shows as filed, which outranks every other state, and the ARN stays beside it.
Filing it by SMS takes two messages
Rule 67A is what makes an SMS a filing: it is sent from the registered mobile number and confirmed with a one-time code sent to the same number. Among the conditions on the portal’s help page for filing a nil GSTR-1 by SMS are three worth checking first. The period must be over, since the SMS works from the first day of the following month. It must come from the registered mobile number of an authorised signatory. And nothing may be saved or submitted in the online GSTR-1 for the period: if someone began entering it on the portal, the SMS route is closed. Then:
- Send NIL R1, the GSTIN and the period as MMYYYY to 14409, a space between each: for August 2026, NIL R1 29DEMOA1234A1Z4 082026.
- A quarterly filer sends the quarter’s last month: 062026 for April to June 2026.
- A six-digit code comes back to the same number. It is valid for 30 minutes.
- Reply CNF R1 and the code to 14409: for code 123456, CNF R1 123456.
- The ARN comes back by SMS and to the registered email address, and the filing shows on the portal under Services, Returns, Track Return Status. Keep the ARN; in a practice workspace, put it on the board.
A late nil return costs ₹20 a day, and never more than ₹500
A nil GSTR-1 not filed by its due date is late like any other. Section 47(1) of the CGST Act charges a late fee for every day of delay, and every State or Union territory Act charges the same again, so the fee comes in two equal halves. For a period with no outward supplies, Notification 4/2018-Central Tax waives everything above ₹10 a day under each Act, and Notification 20/2021-Central Tax caps it at ₹250 under each Act for tax periods from June 2021.
Together that is ₹20 a day and never more than ₹500 for one nil GSTR-1: 25 days late costs ₹500, and so does a year. It is paid in cash; input tax credit cannot pay a late fee.
The free GST late fee calculator works the figure out from the period, with the due date filled in and open to change, because a due date is sometimes extended by notification. It gives no figure for tax periods before June 2021.
Try it on your own figures with the free GST late fee calculator.
Which file to download, and from where: the list for each marketplace and the GST portal.
By Raunak Pathak, founder of fynxIQ, who files GST returns on it. Last updated 23 September 2026. This is general information about how GST returns work, not advice about your particular return.