GST Registration Checker (India): Is It Mandatory for You?
Your State’s turnover limit, the compulsory cases and the documents, section by section.
Why registration is mandatory
Exemptions that apply to you
Good to know
Documents for FORM GST REG-01
From the list of documents in FORM GST REG-01 (CGST Rules). The portal shows the exact list for your business while you fill in the form; scans go up as PDF or JPEG files.
For information only, not tax advice. The registration rules are those of the CGST and IGST Acts and the notifications cited; your State’s officer decides the application.
Tax rules and rates change. This calculator follows the rules described on this page and may not cover every situation. Check the official source or a qualified tax professional before filing or invoicing.
About the GST Registration Checker (India): Is It Mandatory for You?
Answer a few questions — what you supply, the State you supply from, your turnover for the year and how you sell — and the checker tells you whether GST registration is mandatory, and why. It applies the turnover limit of section 22 of the CGST Act (₹20 lakh, ₹10 lakh in Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura, and ₹40 lakh for suppliers of goods only in the States that adopted it), the compulsory registration cases of section 24 — inter-State sales, e-commerce, casual and non-resident sellers, reverse charge, agents and others — and the notifications that exempt small suppliers from some of them.
Each answer names the section or notification behind it. It also lists the documents FORM GST REG-01 asks for, by type of business, and points out when the composition scheme or voluntary registration may suit you. Nothing you enter leaves your device.
How to use it
- Choose goods only, services or both, and the State or Union territory of your business.
- Enter your aggregate turnover for the financial year: all your sales across India under the same PAN — taxable, exempt, exports and inter-State — without the GST. For a new business, enter what you expect for the year.
- Tick how you sell: to other States, through e-commerce platforms. Open Special cases if you are a casual seller, pay tax under reverse charge, act as an agent, or make only exempt supplies.
- Read the result: the limit that applies to you, every reason registration is compulsory, the exemptions you meet with their conditions, and the deadline.
- Pick your type of business to see the documents to upload, then Copy summary or open the registration portal.
Examples
Not mandatory yet — the limit for suppliers of goods only is ₹40 lakh (Notification No. 10/2019-Central Tax)
Mandatory — Telangana kept the ₹20 lakh limit of section 22(1), so ₹35 lakh is over it
Not mandatory yet — inter-State services are exempt from compulsory registration up to ₹20 lakh (Notification No. 10/2017-Integrated Tax)
Not mandatory, on conditions — get an enrolment number on the GST portal before selling (Notification No. 34/2023-Central Tax)
Mandatory at any turnover — section 24(i), inter-State supply of goods
Common uses
- Decide whether a new shop, freelance practice or online store must register before it starts.
- Check whether selling on a marketplace, or to a buyer in another State, changes the answer.
- Watch the year’s turnover approach the limit and apply within the thirty days.
- Gather the documents for the application, by type of business.
The turnover limits
- ₹40 lakh: suppliers of goods only, except in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura and Uttarakhand, and except suppliers of ice cream, pan masala, tobacco, fly ash bricks and blocks, building bricks, bricks of fossil meals and earthen or roofing tiles (Notification No. 10/2019-Central Tax, as amended). Interest on deposits and loans does not count as a supply of services for this.
- ₹20 lakh: suppliers of services, or of goods and services, and suppliers of goods in the States and goods above (section 22(1)).
- ₹10 lakh: in the special category States of section 22 — Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.
The limit is on aggregate turnover (section 2(6)): taxable, exempt, export and inter-State supplies of all businesses with the same PAN, across India, without the tax itself and without purchases taxed under reverse charge. Registration is due within thirty days from the day the year’s aggregate turnover exceeds the limit (section 25(1)).
Compulsory registration (section 24)
These persons must register whatever their turnover: those making inter-State taxable supplies; casual and non-resident taxable persons; persons liable to pay tax under reverse charge or under section 9(5); tax deductors under section 51; agents supplying on behalf of others; Input Service Distributors; suppliers through e-commerce operators that collect tax at source; e-commerce operators; and suppliers of online information and database services or online money gaming from outside India.
Notifications relax some of these for small suppliers: inter-State services up to ₹20 lakh (No. 10/2017-Integrated Tax), job work services for a registered person in another State (No. 7/2017-Integrated Tax), services through e-commerce up to ₹20 lakh (No. 65/2017-Central Tax), goods through e-commerce within the section 22(1) limit, in one State and with an enrolment number (No. 34/2023-Central Tax), and casual sellers of handicraft goods (No. 56/2018-Central Tax, with No. 3/2018-Integrated Tax). There is no such relief for inter-State sales of goods.
Who need not register
- A person supplying only goods or services that are wholly exempt or not taxable (section 23(1)(a)).
- An agriculturist, for the produce of his own cultivation (section 23(1)(b)).
- A person whose supplies are all taxed under reverse charge, the buyer paying the whole tax (Notification No. 5/2017-Central Tax) — except suppliers of metal scrap (No. 24/2024-Central Tax).
Anyone may still register voluntarily (section 25(3)); every provision of the Act then applies, and registered buyers can claim credit on the tax you charge.
Sources
Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, sections 2(6), 22, 23, 24 and 25, and the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, section 20, on CBIC’s GST site; CGST Rules, rules 8 and 10A and FORM GST REG-01; and the notifications named above, all on CBIC’s tax information portal. Applications are made on the GST registration portal.
Limitations
- The checker follows the answers you give; whether a supply is inter-State, exempt or under reverse charge depends on the facts — the place of supply finder and the reverse charge checker help with those.
- Registration is needed in every State or Union territory from which you make taxable supplies; the checker looks at one State at a time.
- Special registrations — tax deductors and collectors, non-resident taxable persons, online services from abroad, SEZ units, UN bodies — have their own forms and conditions on the portal.
- For information only, not tax advice.
Privacy
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Frequently asked questions
What is the GST registration limit?
₹40 lakh of aggregate turnover for suppliers of goods only in most States, ₹20 lakh for services (or goods and services) and for goods in Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Puducherry, Sikkim, Telangana and Uttarakhand, and ₹10 lakh in Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. Some cases need registration at any turnover (section 24).
Do I need GST registration to sell on Amazon or Flipkart?
Suppliers of goods through an e-commerce operator that collects tax at source are exempt within the section 22(1) limit (₹20 lakh, ₹10 lakh in the special category States) if they sell in only one State, make no inter-State supply of goods, have a PAN and get an enrolment number on the GST portal before selling (Notification No. 34/2023-Central Tax). Selling to buyers in other States needs registration.
I am a freelancer with clients in other States. Do I need GST?
Not below ₹20 lakh of aggregate turnover (₹10 lakh in the special category States): Notification No. 10/2017-Integrated Tax exempts small suppliers of inter-State services from the compulsory registration of section 24(i). Exports of services count in the turnover.
Is the turnover limit for the previous year or the current year?
Section 22(1) looks at the aggregate turnover in a financial year: you must apply within thirty days from the day this year’s turnover exceeds the limit. The composition scheme, by contrast, looks at the previous year’s turnover.
Does turnover include exempt sales and exports?
Yes. Aggregate turnover covers taxable, exempt, export and inter-State supplies of all businesses with the same PAN across India, without GST and without inward supplies taxed under reverse charge (section 2(6)).