If your business had turnover of ₹10 crore or more in any year since 2017-18, you must report every GST e-invoice, credit note and debit note on the Invoice Registration Portal (IRP) within 30 days of the document date. Miss that window and the portal blocks the Invoice Reference Number (IRN). Without a valid IRN the document is not a valid tax invoice, so your buyer can lose input tax credit (ITC).
This limit started on 1 April 2025, under a GSTN advisory dated 5 November 2024. Before that, the same 30-day rule applied only to firms with turnover of ₹100 crore or more. Small businesses below ₹10 crore are not covered yet.
Short on time? Skip to the 30-minute checklist near the end and find your own reporting gaps today.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Who it covers | Aggregate annual turnover of ₹10 crore or more in any financial year from 2017-18 onward |
| Deadline | 30 days from the document date |
| Documents affected | Tax invoices, credit notes and debit notes |
| In force from | 1 April 2025 |
| If you miss it | The IRP rejects the IRN request and no IRN can be generated for that document later |
| Legal base | Rule 48(4) and Rule 48(5), CGST Rules 2017 |
E-invoicing means uploading your invoice details to a government IRP, which returns a signed IRN and a QR code. This is required under Rule 48(4) of the CGST Rules for notified taxpayers.
From 1 April 2025, if your aggregate annual turnover (AATO) is ₹10 crore or more, the IRP will not accept a document that is older than 30 days from its date. The clock runs from the date printed on the invoice, credit note or debit note, not the date you try to upload it.
Example: an invoice dated 1 August must reach the IRP by 30 August. On 31 August the portal shows an error and refuses the IRN. There is no official way to reopen that window afterwards.
The ₹10 crore test looks at your turnover in any single financial year since 2017-18. If you crossed ₹10 crore even once in the past, e-invoicing and the 30-day limit apply to you now, even if your current-year turnover is lower.
An invoice that needed an IRN but does not have one is not treated as a valid tax invoice. Rule 48(5) of the CGST Rules is blunt: such a document “shall not be treated as an invoice”.
That has two effects:
In practice, buyers with strong accounts teams now refuse to release payment until they see a valid IRN and QR code on your invoice. A missed deadline can freeze your own receivables.
Ravi Menon, auto-parts trader, Coimbatore. His firm crossed ₹12 crore turnover in 2023-24, so e-invoicing applies. In April 2025 his accountant was on leave and 14 invoices worth ₹38 lakh, dated 2 to 6 April, were never uploaded to the IRP.
He tried to generate the IRNs on 9 May, 33 days after the earliest invoice date. The portal rejected all 14 with a time-limit error.
His three largest buyers held back ₹6.2 lakh of ITC until the issue was fixed and asked for fresh, compliant documentation. Ravi had to re-issue documents within a valid window and reconcile his GSTR-1 for the month. The lesson: build a weekly IRN check so no document ages past 30 days.
Some entities do not have to generate e-invoices at all, so the 30-day limit does not touch them. As notified under the CGST rules, these include:
If you fall in one of these categories, confirm your exact status with your GST practitioner before assuming you are outside the rule. Exemption is by entity type, not by turnover.
Not yet. As of 2026, the 30-day reporting limit applies only to taxpayers with an aggregate annual turnover of ₹10 crore or more. Businesses below that threshold can still generate IRNs without the 30-day cap, but the government has lowered the threshold before, so watch for future advisories.
The IRP will reject the IRN request for that document with a time-limit error. There is no official way to reopen the window. You cannot get an IRN for the expired document, so the invoice is not a valid tax invoice. Speak to your practitioner about issuing a fresh, compliant document and correcting your records.
Yes. The 30-day limit applies to tax invoices, credit notes and debit notes alike. Many teams upload invoices on time but let notes slip past 30 days. Track all three document types.
The date printed on the document, not the date you upload it. An invoice dated 1 August must reach the IRP by 30 August. Uploading on 31 August fails.
They can. Under Section 16(2)(a) of the CGST Act, ITC needs a valid tax invoice. An invoice that required an IRN but does not have one is not valid under Rule 48(5), so the buyer may have to reverse the credit with interest. That is why buyers now insist on a valid IRN before paying.
Use the taxpayer status search on the e-invoice portal. Enter your GSTIN and it shows whether e-invoicing is enabled for you. Enablement is based on the turnover data on the GST system, so verify it rather than guessing from memory.
Supplying goods or services without a required e-invoice is treated as issuing an incorrect invoice and can attract a penalty under the CGST Act. The value can also mismatch in GSTR-1 and the buyer's statements. The safest course is timely reporting, not after-the-fact fixes.
For your own returns and notices, use the GST helpdesk and your practitioner. RTI is useful for public, procedural information held by government offices, such as the status of a pending refund or a grievance. You can draft such a request with the RTI Assistant tool.