GST Annual Return Filing (GSTR-9 & 9C)

The annual GST return that consolidates all your monthly/quarterly returns for a financial year into one statement of supplies, ITC and tax.

Every regular taxpayer, except those the Commissioner has exempted under the first proviso to section 44(1). Notification 15/2025-Central Tax dated 17 September 2025 exempts, for the annual return for FY 2024-25 onwards, a registered person whose aggregate turnover in any financial year is up to two crore rupees. So the practical rule is: above ₹2 crore, GSTR-9 is due; at or below it, it is not. Two refinements. The exemption is standing from FY 2024-25 — it does not need re-notifying each year, which the equivalent for FY 2023-24 (Notification 14/2024-Central Tax) did. And it is tested year by year, so a single year above ₹2 crore brings that year's return into scope even if the years either side are below.

A self-certified reconciliation statement between your annual financial statements and your GST returns. Rule 80(3) requires it from a registered person whose aggregate turnover during a financial year exceeds five crore rupees, filed along with the annual return and by the same date. Two corrections worth making, because both older positions are still widely published: the threshold is ₹5 crore, not the ₹2 crore that preceded it, and there is no chartered accountant's audit certificate — Notification 30/2021-Central Tax substituted Rule 80 in July 2021 and replaced certification with self-certification. Note also that GSTR-9C is independent of the GSTR-9 exemption: a business between ₹2 crore and ₹5 crore files GSTR-9 but not 9C, and one above ₹5 crore files both.

31 December following the end of the financial year, under Rule 80(1). Worth knowing where that date lives: section 44 used to carry it, but the section was substituted by section 111 of the Finance Act 2021 with effect from 1 August 2021, and the date now sits only in Rule 80(1) — which is why it can be moved by amendment to the rules or extended by notification for a particular year, as it has been more than once. We confirm the live date for the year we are filing.

Usually not, and this is a genuine trap. Section 16(4) ends input tax credit on an invoice at 30 November following the end of the financial year, or the furnishing of the relevant annual return, whichever is earlier. Filing the annual return in, say, August therefore closes your own credit window three months early. If any credit for the year is still unclaimed — a supplier who filed late, an invoice found during the year-end close — claim it in a GSTR-3B first and file GSTR-9 afterwards. We check for exactly this before filing.

GSTR-9 generally cannot be revised once filed, which is why careful reconciliation beforehand matters. We get it right the first time.

Yes, and it does not work like the monthly ones. Under Notification 07/2023-Central Tax, from FY 2022-23 onwards: turnover up to ₹5 crore — ₹50 per day combined CGST and SGST, capped at 0.04% of turnover in the State or Union territory; ₹5 crore to ₹20 crore — ₹100 per day, same 0.04% cap; above ₹20 crore — not in the notification table at all, so section 47(2)'s own rate applies at ₹200 per day combined, capped at 0.5% of State turnover. Two consequences. The flat ₹200 per day that most calculators use is right only above ₹20 crore and is four times too high below ₹5 crore. And because the cap is a percentage of turnover rather than a rupee figure, no one can quote your maximum without knowing your State turnover. Note too that these slabs test turnover in the relevant financial year, whereas the GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B caps test the preceding year.

Yes, if you're above ₹2 crore — the annual return is a separate consolidation, not a substitute for monthly returns. It is also where the department first sees the year as a whole, which is why the reconciliation matters more than the filing.

Only within three years. Section 44(2) bars furnishing an annual return after the expiry of three years from the due date, commenced by Notification 28/2023-Central Tax from 1 October 2023. There is a proviso letting the Government permit late filing by notification, but that is relief that may or may not come, not a plan. If you have unfiled annual returns for older years, the clock runs from each year's own 31 December, so they expire one at a time.

We identify the differences, explain them, and present them correctly in the annual return and reconciliation.

No — they file GSTR-4 annually instead. We handle that under the Composition Scheme service.

Share your year's filed returns and financials; we'll reconcile and prepare your annual return.