GSTR-9 & GSTR-9C Annual Return: Applicability, Tables & Filing Guide (2026)

What is GSTR-9?

GSTR-9 is the annual return that consolidates all the monthly or quarterly returns (GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B) a regular taxpayer filed during a financial year. It is a yearly summary of outward supplies, inward supplies, tax paid, Input Tax Credit (ITC) claimed and reversed, and demands or refunds — all in one document. Filing it correctly closes the compliance loop for the year.

What is GSTR-9C?

GSTR-9C is a self-certified reconciliation statement that reconciles the figures declared in your GSTR-9 with your audited annual financial statements. It highlights any differences between your books of accounts and your GST returns, with reasons. Since FY 2020-21, it is self-certified by the taxpayer (the earlier mandatory CA/CMA certification was removed).

Applicability — Who Must File?

Aggregate Annual Turnover	GSTR-9	GSTR-9C
Up to ₹2 crore	Optional (exempted)	Not required
₹2 crore to ₹5 crore	Mandatory	Not required
Above ₹5 crore	Mandatory	Mandatory

Who is exempt entirely: Composition dealers (they file GSTR-9A, currently waived), Casual Taxable Persons, Non-Resident Taxable Persons, Input Service Distributors, and TDS/TCS deductors. e-Commerce operators and regular taxpayers must file based on the turnover slab above.

Due Date

The due date for both GSTR-9 and GSTR-9C is 31 December following the end of the financial year (e.g., 31 December 2026 for FY 2025-26). GSTR-9 cannot be revised once filed, so accuracy is critical.

Structure of GSTR-9 — The Six Parts

Part I — Basic Details

Auto-populated: GSTIN, legal name, trade name and the financial year.

Part II — Outward Supplies (Tables 4 & 5)

Table 4 captures taxable outward supplies on which tax is payable (B2B, B2C, exports with payment, supplies under RCM, advances, credit/debit notes). Table 5 captures supplies on which tax is not payable (exports under LUT, exempt, nil-rated, non-GST). These are largely consolidated from your GSTR-1.

Part III — Input Tax Credit (Tables 6, 7 & 8)

• Table 6: ITC availed during the year, bifurcated into inputs, input services and capital goods, plus RCM and ISD credit.
• Table 7: ITC reversed (Rule 37, 42, 43) and ineligible ITC.
• Table 8: The crucial reconciliation between ITC as per GSTR-2A/2B and ITC claimed in GSTR-3B. Any gap here is the most-scrutinised figure in the return.

Part IV — Tax Paid (Table 9)

Details of tax payable and tax actually paid in cash and through ITC during the year, head-wise (IGST, CGST, SGST, Cess).

Part V — Transactions of Previous FY Declared in Next FY (Tables 10 to 14)

Amendments, ITC, and supplies of the financial year that were actually declared between April and the date of filing of the next year's returns. This captures the "spill-over" entries.

Part VI — Other Information (Tables 15 to 19)

Demands and refunds, supplies received from composition dealers, deemed supply under Section 143 (job work), HSN-wise summary of outward and inward supplies, and late fee payable.

What GSTR-9C Reconciles

• Turnover: Gross and taxable turnover as per audited financials vs as declared in GSTR-9.
• Tax paid: Rate-wise liability per books vs per returns.
• ITC: ITC as per audited accounts vs ITC claimed in GSTR-9, with expense-head-wise breakup.
• Any un-reconciled difference must be explained, and additional liability (if any) is paid through DRC-03.

Late Fee for GSTR-9

Late fee is ₹200 per day (₹100 CGST + ₹100 SGST), capped at a percentage of turnover in the state/UT. For taxpayers up to ₹5 crore the cap is 0.04% of turnover; for ₹5–20 crore, also concessional; above ₹20 crore the standard cap applies. There is no separate late fee notified for GSTR-9C, but filing it late along with GSTR-9 attracts the GSTR-9 late fee.

Common Reconciliation Errors to Avoid

• Mismatch between Table 8 (ITC as per 2A/2B vs 3B) caused by ITC claimed but not reflected in GSTR-2B.
• Forgetting to include credit/debit notes and amendments in Tables 4 and 5.
• Not reporting the mandatory HSN summary in Table 17/18 (now mandatory for both outward and inward).
• Ignoring spill-over entries (Part V) — supplies of last FY declared in the current FY's April–November returns.
• Treating GSTR-9 as editable — it is not. Reconcile your books before you file.

Practice GSTR-9 & GSTR-9C on IndIaTaxSim

IndIaTaxSim lets you practise the full annual return workflow — auto-consolidation of your filed GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B data into the GSTR-9 tables, the Table 8 ITC reconciliation, the HSN summary, and the GSTR-9C offline Excel-to-JSON upload flow exactly as on the real portal. Because all your monthly returns in the simulation feed the annual return, you see precisely how an error in a monthly return surfaces at year-end.