How to File GSTR-9: A Table-by-Table Walkthrough

To file GSTR-9 for FY 2025-26, first file every GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B for the year. Then open Services, Returns, Annual Return on the GST portal, check the auto-filled Tables 4 to 9 against your books, add later corrections in Tables 10 to 14, pay any shortfall through Form DRC-03 and file by 31 December 2026.

Before you start: do you need to file at all?

If your aggregate turnover for FY 2025-26 is up to Rs 2 crore, you are exempt. Above Rs 5 crore, you also file GSTR-9C. The limits, the due date and the late fee are explained in GSTR-9: who must file, due date and late fee. This page is about the form itself.

One idea makes the whole form easier. GSTR-9 is not a fresh return. It is your twelve months of GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B added up, and then corrected to what your books say is true.

What should you keep ready?

• Sales register for April 2025 to March 2026, with credit notes and debit notes.
• Purchase register with the input tax credit (ITC, the GST on purchases you set off against GST on sales) claimed each month.
• Filed GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B for the year, and for April 2026 onwards, where late corrections sit.
• GSTR-2B for the year, the statement of credit your suppliers reported.
• Electronic cash and credit ledgers, refund orders and demand orders, if any.
• HSN-wise totals of sales.

How do you file it on the portal?

1. Log in at gst.gov.in. Go to Services, Returns, Annual Return. Choose financial year 2025-26 and click Search.
2. On the GSTR-9 tile, click Prepare Online. The offline tool does the same job in Excel.
3. Answer the nil return question. Choose Yes only if you had no sales, no purchases, no credit, no refund, no demand and no late fee for the year.
4. Download the system summaries: the GSTR-9 computed summary, the GSTR-1 and IFF summary, the GSTR-3B summary, the Table 8A document details and the Table 12 HSN details.
5. Compare those summaries with your books and list each difference with its reason.
6. Open the tiles one by one, Tables 4 to 18, correct what is wrong, and save each.
7. Click Preview Draft GSTR-9 and read the PDF line by line.
8. Click Compute Liabilities. Table 17 must be filled first. If you are late, the portal works out the late fee in Table 19, which you pay from the cash ledger.
9. Tick the declaration, pick the authorised signatory and file with DSC or EVC (a one-time password).
10. If the return shows more tax than you paid, the portal takes you to Form DRC-03 to pay it.

What does each part of the form hold?

Where should your attention go? For most small businesses, three lines decide everything: the Table 4 total against your books, the gap in Table 8D, and tax payable against tax paid in Table 9.

Which tables can you skip this year?

The form's instructions have given small relaxations year by year. Tax publishers report that Notification 05/2026-Central Tax, dated 26 October 2026, continues them for FY 2025-26. We have not read the notification text itself, so check the instructions on the portal before you rely on this list.

• Tables 15, 16 and 18: reported as optional.
• Tables 5D and 5E: exempt and nil-rated sales may be shown together in 5D.
• Tables 6B to 6D: credit on inputs and input services may be shown together. Capital goods stay separate.
• Tables 5H to 5K: you may report the Table 5 rows net of credit notes, debit notes and amendments.
• Table 17: not optional. HSN at 4 digits is accepted up to Rs 5 crore turnover and 6 digits above that.
• Tables 12 and 13: the option to leave them blank is reported as withdrawn from FY 2024-25. Fill them where they apply.

A worked example: a missed invoice

Your books show sales of Rs 2,60,00,000 for FY 2025-26. Your GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B add up to Rs 2,58,00,000. You trace the gap to one October 2025 invoice of Rs 2,00,000 at 18% that was never reported and never corrected later.

• Tax short paid: Rs 36,000.
• Interest at 18% a year from 21 November 2025 to 15 December 2026, 390 days: Rs 36,000 x 18% x 390/365 = Rs 6,924.
• Total to pay: Rs 42,924.

In GSTR-9 you add Rs 2,00,000 and its tax to Table 4, so the tax payable in Table 9 rises by Rs 36,000. The paid column does not move, because it comes from GSTR-3B. You pay the Rs 42,924 through DRC-03. Had you corrected the invoice in a return filed by 30 November 2026, it would have gone to Table 10 instead, with the tax in Table 14.

How do you pay a difference through DRC-03?

DRC-03 is the form for paying tax on your own, before any notice. On the portal it sits under Services, User Services, My Applications. Choose the voluntary payment option, enter the financial year, the tax and the interest, pay, and keep the acknowledgement with your GSTR-9 working papers.

Why pay now rather than wait? Interest at 18% keeps adding up, and tax paid on your own before a notice generally avoids or reduces the penalty that follows a demand.

The mistakes people usually make

• Accepting the auto-filled figures. They repeat your monthly returns, mistakes included. The return cannot be revised.
• Counting a late correction twice. A FY 2025-26 sale you added in a return filed after March 2026 belongs in Table 10, not in Table 4 as well.
• Trying to take missed credit. GSTR-9 cannot give you ITC. Credit for FY 2025-26 had to be claimed in a GSTR-3B filed by 30 November 2026.
• Leaving Table 8D unexplained. If you claimed more credit than GSTR-2B shows, know the reason before you file.
• Mixing up the years. Credit of FY 2024-25 claimed in FY 2025-26 goes in Table 6A1. Otherwise your own year looks overclaimed.

Can you do it yourself? With one GSTIN, matching returns and few credit reversals, yes: set aside half a day. If Table 8D or Table 9 shows a gap you cannot explain, get help before you file, not after.

Frequently asked questions

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