GST Return Filing in India

A regular taxpayer files GSTR-1 for outward supplies and GSTR-3B as the summary return through which tax is paid, either monthly or quarterly under the QRMP scheme. GSTR-1A is available to correct the same period's GSTR-1 after it is filed and before GSTR-3B is furnished. After the year ends, GSTR-9 is the annual return and GSTR-9C the self-certified reconciliation statement at higher turnover. Composition taxpayers instead file CMP-08 quarterly and GSTR-4 annually.

Monthly filers: GSTR-1 by the 11th and GSTR-3B by the 20th of the following month. QRMP filers: quarterly GSTR-1 by the 13th of the month after the quarter, IFF for each of the first two months by the 13th of the succeeding month, PMT-06 tax payment by the 25th of the succeeding month, and quarterly GSTR-3B by the 22nd or 24th depending on the state group. Composition: CMP-08 by the 18th after each quarter and GSTR-4 by 30 June following the financial year. GSTR-9 and 9C by 31 December. IMS actions should be completed before the 14th. Dates can be extended by notification, so we confirm each cycle.

The Invoice Management System has applied since the October 2024 tax period. Every inward record your suppliers report appears on your IMS dashboard, and you must Accept, Reject or keep it Pending. Taking no action counts as deemed acceptance. GSTR-2B is drafted on the 14th from those actions, and if you act on a record after the 14th you must use Compute GSTR-2B to regenerate the statement. Pending is available only for specified record types and for a limited carry-forward window. GSTR-2B for a period is also not generated until the previous period's GSTR-3B has been filed.

Yes. As long as your GSTIN is active, a return is due for every tax period regardless of activity, and a late fee applies even to a nil return filed late. The good news is that nil GSTR-1 and nil GSTR-3B can be filed by SMS from the registered mobile number, which takes minutes.

A per-day late fee applies for each return filed after its due date, subject to a cap that depends on your turnover and on whether the return is nil. Separately, interest at 18% per annum under Section 50(1) runs from the day after the due date on tax paid late, and where the delay is in furnishing the return it is charged only on the portion paid by debiting the electronic cash ledger, under the proviso to Section 50(1) read with Rule 88B(1). Where proceedings under Section 73, 74 or 74A have been initiated, interest runs on the gross tax. Credit wrongly availed and utilised attracts interest under Section 50(3) from the date of utilisation.

Only up to a point. Following the Finance Act 2023 amendment, implemented on the GST portal with effect from the July 2025 tax period, a return cannot be filed once three years have passed from its own due date, and this applies return-by-return across GSTR-1, GSTR-3B, GSTR-9, GSTR-5, GSTR-6, GSTR-7 and GSTR-8. Crucially, losing the ability to file does not extinguish the liability. The officer can issue Form GSTR-3A under Section 46, pass a best-judgment assessment under Section 62, recover under Section 79 and levy penalty under Sections 122 and 125, and the registration is liable to cancellation under Section 29(2) for continuous non-filing. Regularise pending periods well before the limit.

GST returns cannot be revised the way an income tax return can, but there is now a same-period route. GSTR-1A lets you add or amend GSTR-1 particulars after GSTR-1 is filed and before GSTR-3B for that period is furnished, and for QRMP filers after the quarterly GSTR-1 and before the quarterly GSTR-3B. It cannot be used to change a recipient's GSTIN. Once GSTR-3B for the period has been filed, correction shifts to the amendment tables of a subsequent period, subject to the outer cut-off of 30 November following the financial year or the filing of the annual return, whichever is earlier.

Because the outward liability in Table 3 of GSTR-3B is auto-populated from GSTR-1, IFF and GSTR-1A, and GSTN has been hard-locking that field so it cannot be edited in the 3B. Any correction has to be made through GSTR-1A before the GSTR-3B is filed. Table 4 ITC values auto-populate from GSTR-2B and are similarly restricted. We verify the current lock position on the portal each cycle, since the effective tax period has been re-notified more than once.

Section 44 requires every registered person to file the annual return. The exemption for aggregate turnover up to Rs 2 crore comes from a separate CBIC notification issued for each financial year; it has been notified every year since FY 2017-18 but is not automatic, so it should be checked for the year in question. Aggregate turnover is computed PAN-India across all your GSTINs. GSTR-9 is due by 31 December following the financial year, and many businesses file it even when exempt because it forces a clean reconciliation between books and returns.

No. GSTR-9C is required where aggregate turnover exceeds Rs 5 crore, but it is a self-certified reconciliation statement; the earlier requirement for certification by a Chartered Accountant or Cost Accountant was removed. Most businesses still have it prepared professionally, because reconciling audited financial statements to the annual return is technical and is exactly what a departmental officer examines first.

Their record will not reach your IMS dashboard and will not appear in your GSTR-2B, and you cannot lawfully claim that input tax credit until it does, because Section 16(2)(aa) and (c) are not satisfied. If you have already taken the credit, it must be reversed, with interest where it was utilised. This is why monthly IMS action and GSTR-2B reconciliation matter: they let you identify defaulting suppliers while payment is still pending, rather than discovering the gap a year later.