The Complete Guide to GST Returns: Due Dates, Types, and Late Fees

Filing on time rarely trips people up because the rules are hard to understand. It trips them up because there are so many moving pieces. GSTR-1 has one due date, GSTR-3B has another, composition dealers follow a completely different calendar, the annual return has its own turnover thresholds, and somewhere in the middle of all this sits a hard deadline for claiming input tax credit that, once missed, can never be recovered.

This guide pulls all of that together in one place: every major return type, its due date, the applicable late fee, how QRMP and composition taxpayers differ from regular monthly filers, and the mistakes that most often lead to notices and blocked filings.

What Is a Return, and Why Are There So Many Types?

Each return is simply a periodic statement a registered taxpayer files with the government, reporting sales, purchases, tax collected, and tax paid. The reason there isn't just one return is that different pieces of information move at different speeds and serve different purposes invoice details need to reach your buyer quickly (GSTR-1), tax needs to be settled regularly (GSTR-3B), and the full financial year needs a final reconciliation against your audited books (GSTR-9/9C). Add in returns for special categories of taxpayers composition dealers, e-commerce operators, non-resident suppliers and the list grows further.

Types of Returns Complete List

GSTR-1 Outward Supply Return

GSTR-1 is where every sale you made in a period gets reported, invoice by invoice. It's the return your buyers depend on, since their input tax credit is built from the data you report here through GSTR-2B.

Due dates:

• Monthly filers: 11th of the following month
• QRMP (quarterly) filers: 13th of the month following the quarter

Invoice Furnishing Facility (IFF): QRMP taxpayers who want their B2B buyers to get input credit sooner don't have to wait until quarter-end. The optional IFF lets them upload B2B invoices for the first two months of the quarter by the 13th of the following month, capped at ₹50 lakh of invoice value per month. B2C invoices can't be reported through IFF; those wait for the quarterly GSTR-1.

Late fee for GSTR-1: ₹50 per day of delay (₹25 CGST + ₹25 SGST) for a regular return, and ₹20 per day for a Nil return, subject to the same turnover-based caps that apply to GSTR-3B.

GSTR-3B The Return That Actually Settles Your Tax

GSTR-3B is a self-declared summary return. Instead of listing every invoice, it asks for consolidated totals outward supplies, input tax credit claimed, and the net tax you owe. It's the return where money actually moves: once you file it, the tax due is settled through your electronic cash and credit ledgers.

Every regular taxpayer must file GSTR-3B, even in a month with zero transactions. In that case, simply filing a Nil return skipping it entirely still triggers a late fee, so there's no upside to ignoring a quiet month.

GSTR-3B Last Date for Monthly Filers

If your aggregate annual turnover crosses ₹5 crore, or you haven't opted into the QRMP scheme, you file GSTR-3B every month.

The due date is the 20th of the following month.

So GSTR-3B for June falls due on 20th July, the return for July is due 20th August, and so on.

Monthly GSTR-3B Due Date Calendar

*March 2026's due date was officially extended from 20th to 21st April 2026 via CBIC Notification No. 01/2026 Central Tax, following portal technical issues. All other dates above follow the standard 20th-of-next-month rule and are subject to change if the government issues a fresh extension notification.

Is GSTR-3B Monthly or Quarterly? (QRMP Explained)

This is one of the most common points of confusion, and the honest answer is: it depends on your turnover and your choice.

• Turnover above ₹5 crore: GSTR-3B must be filed monthly. There's no quarterly option here.
• Turnover up to ₹5 crore: You can opt into the QRMP scheme (Quarterly Return Monthly Payment), which lets you file GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B once every quarter, while still paying tax every month through Form GST PMT-06.

GSTR-3B Due Date for Quarterly Return (QRMP)

For QRMP filers, the due date depends on the state or union territory where your principal place of business is registered. The GST Council split states into two categories:

• Category X states/UTs due 22nd of the month after the quarter: Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Daman & Diu, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Puducherry, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep.
• Category Y states/UTs due 24th of the month after the quarter: Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya, Assam, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Chandigarh, Delhi.

GSTR-3B due date for quarterly return in Maharashtra: Maharashtra falls under Category X, so QRMP taxpayers here file by the 22nd of the month following the quarter for example, the April–June quarter is due 22nd July.

Even though the return itself is quarterly, QRMP taxpayers still pay tax every month by the 25th of the first two months of the quarter using either the fixed sum method or self-assessment through PMT-06. Only the return filing is deferred to quarter-end; the cash outflow isn't.

Is the GST 3B Date Extended? What History Tells Us

Deadline extensions aren't routine, but they do happen usually triggered by portal outages, heavy last-day traffic, or representations made by trade bodies and chartered accountant associations.

A recent, well-documented example: the GSTR-3B due date for March 2026 was originally 20th April 2026, but the government pushed it to 21st April 2026 through Central Tax Notification No. 01/2026, after widespread reports of the portal slowing down under heavy filing traffic.

A few things worth understanding about how these extensions actually work:

• Extensions are announced through official CBIC notifications, not informal portal messages always verified on gst.gov.in or a credible tax news source before assuming a deadline has moved.
• An extension can apply narrowly. It might cover only GSTR-3B and not GSTR-1, or apply only to certain states/UTs (extensions limited to specific flood- or disaster-affected districts have happened before).
• Extensions are usually announced very close to the original due date, sometimes only a day or two before so don't plan your filing around one that hasn't been officially confirmed.

GSTR-3B Due Date vs GSTR-1 Due Date

Since 2022, the portal auto-populates a large part of GSTR-3B using your GSTR-1 and GSTR-2B data, which is exactly why filing GSTR-1 accurately and on time directly affects how smooth your GSTR-3B filing turns out to be.