Last Date to Claim ITC for FY 2025-26: Section 16(4) and the 30 November 2026 Deadline

The short answer

For invoices and debit notes of FY 2025-26 (1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026), you must take the input tax credit (ITC) in a GSTR-3B filed on or before 30 November 2026. If you file the annual return GSTR-9 for 2025-26 before that date, the deadline moves up to the day you file GSTR-9. After the deadline the credit is lost for good.

What Section 16(4) says

Section 16(4) of the CGST Act says a registered person cannot take ITC on an invoice or debit note after 30 November following the end of the financial year it relates to, or after furnishing the annual return, whichever is earlier. The 30 November date applies from 1 October 2022 (Finance Act 2022); before that the cut-off was the September return.

• Invoices: the financial year of the invoice date decides the deadline.
• Debit notes: the financial year of the debit note date decides it, not the year of the original invoice (amended from 1 January 2021).
• "Take" means claim in GSTR-3B. Seeing the invoice in GSTR-2B is not enough; it must be claimed in Table 4 of a GSTR-3B that is filed by the deadline.

Which GSTR-3B is your last chance?

Filer type	Last GSTR-3B that can carry FY 2025-26 ITC	Normal due date
Monthly	October 2026	20 November 2026
Quarterly (QRMP)	July–September 2026 quarter	22 or 24 October 2026, by State

The November 2026 return can only be filed in December, so it is too late. A QRMP taxpayer's October–December return is filed in January, also too late. If the quarterly return for July–September is filed late, it still counts as long as it is filed by 30 November 2026.

Other things that close on 30 November 2026

What	Rule	Who it affects
Credit notes for FY 2025-26 supplies	Section 34(2)	Suppliers reducing tax on returns, discounts, rate errors
Corrections to FY 2025-26 details in GSTR-1	Section 37(3)	Suppliers fixing invoices through the amendment tables
Reversal of ITC where the supplier did not file GSTR-3B by 30 September 2026	Rule 37A	Buyers who claimed that ITC (re-claim later when the supplier files)

More on reversals in our guide to Rules 37, 37A, 42 and 43.

The GSTR-2B condition still applies

Under Section 16(2)(aa), you can claim ITC only for invoices that appear in your GSTR-2B. If a supplier reports a 2025-26 invoice in GSTR-1 after your last return, the credit is lost even though you paid the tax. Chase late suppliers now, and finish any pending actions in the Invoice Management System so the invoices reach GSTR-2B. Our GSTR-2A vs GSTR-2B guide explains why 2B is the one that counts.

Example

Ravi is a monthly filer. In September 2026 he finds a March 2026 purchase invoice of ₹1,00,000 + ₹18,000 IGST that he never claimed. The invoice is in his March 2026 GSTR-2B. He can add the ₹18,000 in Table 4A(5) of his October 2026 GSTR-3B, filed by 20 November 2026. If he waits for the November return, the ₹18,000 is gone. If he had filed GSTR-9 for 2025-26 on 10 November, he would have had to claim it in a return filed by 10 November.

Checklist before you file the October 2026 GSTR-3B

1. Download GSTR-2B for April 2025 to March 2026 and match it with your purchase register.
2. List invoices in GSTR-2B but not yet claimed in any GSTR-3B.
3. List invoices in your books but missing from GSTR-2B, and ask those suppliers to file or correct GSTR-1 now.
4. Clear pending items in IMS.
5. Check Rule 37A: reverse ITC on invoices whose supplier has not filed GSTR-3B.
6. Claim the missed ITC in Table 4A of the October 2026 GSTR-3B (QRMP: the July–September return) and file by 30 November 2026.
7. File GSTR-9 for 2025-26 after this, so the annual return doesn't cut the window short.

Special cases

• FY 2017-18 to 2020-21: Section 16(5), added by the Finance (No. 2) Act 2024 with effect from 1 July 2017, allows ITC for those years claimed in returns filed up to 30 November 2021.
• Registration cancelled and revoked: Section 16(6) allows ITC for the period in between, in a return filed by 30 November following the year or within 30 days of the revocation order, whichever is later, if the time limit had not already run out on the cancellation date.

Practise the year-end ITC check

On IndIaTaxSim you can open GSTR-2B, act on invoices in IMS, claim ITC in GSTR-3B Table 4 and watch the credit ledger change, all on a copy of the portal. The GST Portal Walkthrough covers GSTR-2B and reconciliation in Module 18, and the GST Practice Lab has a full year of a family business to reconcile.