Problem Statement

Taxpayers opting for the presumptive taxation scheme under the Income Tax Act are exempted from maintaining regular books of account. However, for monthly GST return filings (GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B), these taxpayers are still required to process and report sales and purchase data, leading to:

- Increased compliance costs.

- Manual data entry efforts.

- Delays due to dependence on accounting support.

This results in a disproportionate burden on smaller clients with simple compliance needs. There is a need for a robust automation mechanism that eliminates manual intervention and enables GST compliance in a fully autonomous manner.

Solution Overview

The use case demonstrates a low-code/no-code AI Agent, developed using the Microsoft Power Platform, that fully automates GST return preparation—right from invoice ingestion to tax computation and client communication, as depicted below:

Workflow Summary

1. Trigger (Email Received):

Client sends invoices via Gmail. Email subject contains GSTIN, and body indicates Sales or Purchase type.

2. AI-Powered Invoice Classification & Extraction:

Two custom-trained models in AI Builder (PAC) extract structured data (Invoice No., GSTIN, Tax, Date) separately for Sales and Purchase invoices.

3. Cloud Storage & Calculation:

Data is written to a centralized Excel workbook on OneDrive, which has pre-defined GST calculation formulas.

4. PAD Flow for GSTN ITC Scraping:

A Power Automate Desktop bot logs into the supplier GST portal and fetches ITC data. Each PAD flow is linked to the respective GSTIN (as received in email). It can be manually triggered or scheduled for unattended execution during working hours.

5. Net GST Payable Computation:

Excel computes GST Payable = Output GST – Input Tax Credit.

6. Client Notification:

A Gmail response is sent back to the client with the final payable amount, including invoice summaries as illustrated below:

7. Ready-to-File Return Data:

GSTR-1 (invoice-based) and GSTR-3B (summary-based) data is auto-compiled—enabling effortless filing.

Tools and Technologies Used

Objective

To empower Chartered Accountants and small taxpayers by automating the entire GST compliance lifecycle—without accounting software or manual work—leveraging AI, cloud automation, and Excel familiarity.

This solution particularly benefits clients under presumptive taxation by eliminating data entry and enabling CA offices to run autonomous GST agents for compliance, even outside working hours.