Published 11 October 2026
A registered business does not file “a GST return”. It files a set of statements and returns, each under a different section, each with its own date, and several of them unable to open until another has been filed. A missed GSTR-1 holds up the GSTR-3B for the same month. An unfiled GSTR-3B holds up the next GSTR-1. And since late 2025 the portal refuses some returns altogether once three years have passed. The difficulty is less any one form than the order in which they fall.
This guide is the map for the “Returns, step by step” set. It lists every return the set covers, who files it, for what period, by when, and which provision fixes the date. It then sets out the sequence within a month and the three-year bar. The law behind GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B is explained in the conceptual guide GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B, and is not repeated here.
What to have ready
Before a filing season starts, a filer needs:
- Its registration particulars (from the portal): the GSTIN, the type of registration (normal, composition, casual, non-resident, Input Service Distributor, tax deductor, e-commerce operator, UIN holder), and the State of the principal place of business. The State fixes the quarterly GSTR-3B date.
- Its return frequency (from the portal profile): monthly, or quarterly under the QRMP scheme. The option is exercised under rule 61A and stays in force until changed.
- Aggregate turnover of the preceding financial year (from the books and earlier returns). It decides QRMP eligibility, the HSN digits required in GSTR-1, the late fee cap and whether a GSTR-9 or GSTR-9C is due.
- A list of returns already filed and pending (from the portal’s returns dashboard). Every return in the chain below depends on the ones before it.
- A working signature (from the authorised signatory): a registered digital signature certificate, or access to the authorised signatory’s registered mobile number for an electronic verification code. Rule 26 governs both.
Every return in the set
Dates are those in force on 11 October 2026. The Commissioner can extend any of them by notification, and does so from time to time for a month or a region (for example, Notification No. 17/2025-Central Tax moved the September 2025 GSTR-3B, and the July–September 2025 quarterly GSTR-3B, to 25 October 2025).
| Form | Who files it | Period | Due date | Fixed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GSTR-1 (monthly) | Normal and casual taxpayers not in QRMP | Month | 11th of the next month | Section 37(1); Notification No. 83/2020-Central Tax |
| GSTR-1 (quarterly) | QRMP taxpayers | Quarter | 13th of the month after the quarter | Proviso to Notification No. 83/2020-Central Tax |
| IFF (optional) | QRMP taxpayers, first two months of a quarter | Month | 1st to 13th of the next month | Rule 59(2) |
| GSTR-1A (optional) | Anyone who filed the GSTR-1 for the period | Same period as the GSTR-1 | No due date: opens after the GSTR-1 is filed or due, closes when the GSTR-3B is filed | Proviso to rule 59(1) |
| GSTR-2B | Generated by the portal, not filed | Month (quarter for QRMP recipients) | 14th of the next month | Rule 60(8); portal FAQs |
| GSTR-3B (monthly) | Normal and casual taxpayers not in QRMP | Month | 20th of the next month | Section 39(1); rule 61(1)(i) |
| GSTR-3B (quarterly) | QRMP taxpayers | Quarter | 22nd or 24th of the month after the quarter, by State | Rule 61(1)(ii) |
| PMT-06 deposit | QRMP taxpayers, first two months of a quarter | Month | 25th of the next month | Rule 61(3) |
| CMP-08 | Composition taxpayers | Quarter | 18th of the month after the quarter | Rule 62(1)(i) |
| GSTR-4 | Composition taxpayers | Financial year | 30 June after the year (from FY 2024-25) | Rule 62(1)(ii) and its proviso |
| GSTR-5 | Non-resident taxable persons | Month | 13 days after the month, or 7 days after registration ends, if earlier | Section 39(5) |
| GSTR-5A | Suppliers of online information and database access or retrieval services, or online money gaming, from outside India | Month | 20th of the next month | Rule 64 |
| GSTR-6 | Input Service Distributors | Month | 13th of the next month | Section 39(4) |
| GSTR-7 | Tax deductors, including nil months | Month | 10th of the next month | Section 39(3); rule 66(1) |
| GSTR-8 | E-commerce operators collecting tax | Month | 10th of the next month | Section 52(4) |
| GSTR-9 | Normal taxpayers, other than those exempted | Financial year | 31 December after the year | Section 44; rule 80(1) |
| GSTR-9C | Those whose aggregate turnover for the year exceeds Rs 5 crore | Financial year | With the GSTR-9 | Rule 80(3) |
| GSTR-10 | Persons whose registration is cancelled | Once | Three months from the date of cancellation or of the order, whichever is later | Section 45; rule 81 |
| GSTR-11 | UIN holders | As required | With the refund claim, or when the officer calls for it | Rule 82 |
Four points in the table need comment.
The State split for quarterly GSTR-3B. Rule 61(1)(ii) gives the 22nd to taxpayers whose principal place of business is in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands or Lakshadweep. It gives the 24th to those in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya, Assam, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Chandigarh and Delhi.
GSTR-5. Section 39(5) has said “thirteen days” since 1 October 2022, when the Finance Act, 2022 replaced “twenty”. Rule 63, as published by CBIC, still says “within twenty days”. The Act prevails over the rule; the guide on GSTR-5 and GSTR-5A deals with it.
GSTR-9. Notification No. 15/2025-Central Tax, issued under the first proviso to section 44(1), exempts a registered person whose aggregate turnover in a financial year is up to Rs 2 crore from filing the annual return for that year, from FY 2024-25 onwards. Notification No. 14/2024-Central Tax did the same for FY 2023-24. The guide on GSTR-9 covers the conditions.
GSTR-2B is not a return. It is a statement the portal generates. It appears in the table because the GSTR-3B cannot be prepared properly without it.
Monthly or quarterly
The quarterly option is the Quarterly Return Monthly Payment scheme. Notification No. 84/2020-Central Tax makes it available to registered persons, other than suppliers of online information and database access or retrieval services from outside India, with “an aggregate turnover of up to five crore rupees in the preceding financial year” who opt for it under rule 61A. A person whose aggregate turnover crosses Rs 5 crore during a quarter becomes ineligible from the first month of the next quarter (rule 61A(2)).
A QRMP taxpayer files GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B once a quarter, but pays every month. For the first two months of a quarter it deposits tax in FORM GST PMT-06 by the 25th, and may report its sales to registered customers through the Invoice Furnishing Facility so that those customers get their credit sooner. Both are covered in the guide on the QRMP scheme.
The order within a month
For a monthly filer, a month’s returns follow a fixed path. Taking the month of September 2026:
- From the first day of October, the supplier saves its September invoices in GSTR-1 (or IFF). Each saved record appears at once in the customer’s Invoice Management System, according to the portal’s IMS FAQs.
- By 11 October, the supplier files GSTR-1. A QRMP supplier files IFF (months one and two) or the quarterly GSTR-1 by the 13th.
- From the later of 11 October and the date the GSTR-1 is filed, GSTR-1A is open for September until the September GSTR-3B is filed.
- Through the month and up to the GSTR-3B, the customer accepts, rejects or keeps pending its inward records in IMS.
- On 14 October, the portal generates the customer’s draft GSTR-2B for September from the records filed up to the cut-off and the actions taken in IMS. The customer may change actions and recompute GSTR-2B until it files GSTR-3B.
- By 20 October (22nd or 24th after a quarter for QRMP filers), the GSTR-3B is filed and the tax paid.
The portal enforces this order through three provisions:
- Section 37(4): a GSTR-1 cannot be filed if a GSTR-1 for an earlier period is outstanding.
- Section 39(10): a GSTR-3B cannot be filed if an earlier GSTR-3B, or the GSTR-1 for the same period, is outstanding.
- Rule 59(6): a GSTR-1 cannot be filed if the GSTR-3B for the preceding period has not been filed, if bank account details have not been furnished under rule 10A, or if an intimation under rule 88C or rule 88D has been neither paid nor answered.
The practical result is a chain: GSTR-1 for September, then GSTR-3B for September, then GSTR-1 for October. In addition, the portal does not generate a recipient’s GSTR-2B for a month on the 14th if its GSTR-3B for the previous month is unfiled. The recipient generates it from the IMS dashboard after filing (GSTN advisory of 16 November 2024). The step-by-step guides on GSTR-1, IMS and GSTR-2B and GSTR-3B take each stage in turn.
The three-year bar
The Finance Act, 2023 inserted four parallel provisions, in force from 1 October 2023 (Notification No. 28/2023-Central Tax):
- section 37(5), for GSTR-1
- section 39(11), for GSTR-3B and the other returns under section 39 (GSTR-4, GSTR-5, GSTR-6, GSTR-7)
- section 44(2), for the annual return
- section 52(15), for the e-commerce operator’s GSTR-8
Each says the filer “shall not be allowed to furnish” the statement or return “after the expiry of a period of three years from the due date”. Each has a proviso allowing the Government, on the Council’s recommendation, to permit late filing by notification, for a person or class of persons, subject to conditions.
The portal took two years to apply the bar. GSTN announced it on 29 October 2024 for “early next year (2025)”, then on 7 June 2025 for the July 2025 tax period. Its advisory of 29 October 2025 fixed the date that took effect. The restriction applies “from November 2025 Tax period”, so that any return due three years or more earlier and still unfiled is barred. It gave this illustration of the latest periods barred with effect from 1 December 2025:
| Form | Latest period barred from 1 December 2025 |
|---|---|
| GSTR-1, IFF, GSTR-3B (monthly), GSTR-5, GSTR-6, GSTR-7, GSTR-8 | October 2022 |
| GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B (quarterly) | July–September 2022 |
| GSTR-4 | FY 2021-22 |
| GSTR-9 and GSTR-9C | FY 2020-21 |
The bar rolls forward every month. Its consequences for input tax credit, late fee and notices are dealt with in the guide on late returns.
The portal’s FAQs on “Barring/Unbarring of Returns” describe an application for unbarring, made on the portal to the jurisdictional officer. If the officer approves it, the barred returns may be filed within 30 days of approval. The FAQs do not say under what power the officer acts. The provisos to sections 37(5), 39(11), 44(2) and 52(15) give the power to relax the bar to the Government, by notification. No such notification appears in CBIC’s list of Central Tax notifications as at the date of this guide.
Signing, late fees and interest in outline
Every return and statement in the table is filed electronically and signed under rule 26. The portal accepts either a digital signature certificate or an electronic verification code. [Rule 26(2) sets out who signs: the individual, the karta, a company’s chief executive officer or authorised signatory, a partner, and so on.
A return filed late attracts a late fee under section 47, Rs 100 a day under each of the central and State Acts, but much reduced by notifications under section 128. It also attracts interest under section 50 on tax paid late. The amounts for GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B are in those two guides. Those for the other returns are in the guide for each form.
What can be changed after filing
No return in this set can be revised once filed. A GSTR-1 is corrected through GSTR-1A, only before the GSTR-3B for the period, or through the amendment tables of a later GSTR-1. A GSTR-3B is corrected only in a later return, under section 39(9). Both routes close on 30 November after the end of the financial year, or on the date the annual return is filed, if earlier. The guide on correcting mistakes in returns covers each route.
What is coming, and is not yet law
At its 57th meeting on 8 October 2026, the GST Council recommended a set of return changes. They include a new rule 60(6A) to put IMS in the rules, new sub-rules (1A) and (1B) in rule 61 on correcting liability and credit in GSTR-3B, rules 86C and 86D for the reclaim and reverse charge statements, and amendments to sections 16, 37 and 39 to align the return time limits with section 16(4). It also recommended a late fee waiver for taxpayers with turnover up to Rs 5 crore who file within the month of the due date, and an optional Annual Return Quarterly Payment scheme. The Council proposed that the return changes apply from the return for April 2027. None of this is in force until it is notified, or enacted where it amends the Act.
The calendar in order
- Confirm the registration type, return frequency and State of the principal place of business on the portal.
- Confirm the preceding year’s aggregate turnover, which fixes QRMP eligibility, HSN digits, the late fee cap and the annual return.
- File GSTR-1 (or IFF) by the 11th or 13th, after the previous period’s GSTR-3B.
- Correct the GSTR-1 through GSTR-1A, if needed, before the GSTR-3B.
- Act on inward records in IMS, and recompute GSTR-2B after the 14th if any action changes.
- File GSTR-3B and pay by the 20th, or the 22nd or 24th for a quarter. QRMP filers deposit by PMT-06 by the 25th for the first two months.
- File the special returns (CMP-08, GSTR-4, GSTR-5, GSTR-5A, GSTR-6, GSTR-7, GSTR-8) on their own dates, and GSTR-9 and GSTR-9C by 31 December.
- Clear any return approaching three years from its due date before the portal bars it.
The next guide covers GSTR-1 and GSTR-1A: the tables, the HSN and document summaries, e-invoice auto-population, and correcting the statement before GSTR-3B.