CORAA

GST Practitioner Compliance & Due Diligence Checklist

What a CA/GSTP checks before or at the start of a GST engagement — return-filing health, open notices and demands, reconciliation status, and registration hygiene — before committing to represent the client.

Free · CORAA original — SA-aligned
Updated 28 Jul 2026
Used for
Pre-engagement / onboarding health check
Covers
Registration, filings, notices, reconciliation
Principle
Verify directly on the portal, don't rely on client characterisation
Format
Microsoft Word (.docx)
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Your firm — letterhead
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Used as the letterhead block.
Engagement details
The client and period this document is for.
What’s inside

An excerpt from the template.

GST PRACTITIONER COMPLIANCE & DUE DILIGENCE CHECKLIST

Entity: ___ · GSTIN: ___ · Financial year ended: ___

Purpose: a health check performed before, or at the start of, a GST advisory/representation engagement — establishing the client's actual current compliance position rather than relying on the client's own characterisation of it.

A. Registration hygiene

↑ Excerpt only — the full template is what you download as Word
About this template

What you’re downloading, and when to use it.

This template follows the format published by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) in the AASB Audit Working Paper Templates (June 2023), the authoritative reference for Indian statutory-audit documentation. Fill in your firm’s letterhead and the engagement details on the form above, click Download Word file, and you’ll get a fully formatted .docx ready to use.

Everything is generated in your browser and on a stateless API endpoint — no account, nothing stored on our servers. We’ll ask for a work email once before your first download so we can send you the file and the occasional relevant update; after that, downloads on this device are instant. Edit freely in Word, Google Docs or Pages before sending to your client.

Common questions

FAQs.

Why perform a due-diligence checklist before starting a GST engagement rather than just relying on the client's summary?
Clients frequently understate the scope of open notices, filing gaps, or reconciliation drift — not always intentionally, sometimes because their own internal team lost track. A practitioner who takes on representation without an independent check risks discovering the real exposure only after already being on record, which is a worse position than knowing it upfront.
What's the difference between this checklist and the GSTR-9 reconciliation working paper?
This is a broader onboarding/health-check tool covering registration status, filing history, and open notices/litigation in addition to reconciliation — the GSTR-9 reconciliation working paper is the detailed turnover/ITC/tax-paid computation itself, one specific piece of what this checklist confirms has actually been done and is current.
How often should this checklist be refreshed for an existing client, not just a new one?
At least annually, and whenever there's a material change — a new notice received, a return-filing gap emerging, or a change in the client's registration footprint (new state registration, business restructuring). Treating it as a one-time onboarding exercise misses drift that accumulates over an ongoing engagement.
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