GST Registration: Step-by-Step Guide

TL;DR

GST registration is required once aggregate turnover crosses the threshold (₹40 lakh for goods, ₹20 lakh for services, ₹10 lakh for special-category states) or for inter-state supply, e-commerce, and notified categories.

GST registration is generally required once aggregate turnover crosses the threshold — ₹40 lakh for goods, ₹20 lakh for services, ₹10 lakh for special-category states — or earlier if you make inter-state supplies, sell through an e-commerce operator, or fall under a notified mandatory category. The application is filed on the GST portal in Form GST REG-01 with 11 parts, and a registration certificate is generally issued within 7 working days of submission if no query is raised. This guide walks through the documents, the steps, the common rejection reasons, and the post-registration obligations.

Who Must Register

Threshold-based registration

Category	Threshold (Normal States)	Threshold (Special-Category States)
Goods supplier	₹40 lakh aggregate turnover	₹10 lakh
Service provider	₹20 lakh aggregate turnover	₹10 lakh
Mixed (goods + services)	₹40 lakh (governed by the dominant activity)	₹10 lakh

Special-category states under Article 279A(4)(g) of the Constitution (as listed for GST purposes) are: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. Union Territories without a legislature (Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Lakshadweep, Andaman & Nicobar Islands) follow the normal-state thresholds for GST registration.

Mandatory registration, regardless of turnover

You must register irrespective of turnover if:

• You make any inter-state supply of goods or services.
• You are liable to pay tax under reverse charge (e.g., you import services, or you are a GTA hiring an unregistered transporter).
• You sell through an e-commerce operator that is required to collect TCS.
• You are an input service distributor.
• You are a non-resident taxable person making taxable supplies in India.
• You supply online money gaming or online betting (notified under the IGST Act, 2017; effective 1 October 2023, all such supplies by any person, regardless of location, attract GST — registration remains mandatory for these categories where the supplier is in India).
• You are a person deducting tax under Section 51 (TDS) or collecting under Section 52 (TCS).
• You are an aggregator supplying services under the brand name of another person (notified under Section 24(x)).
• You are an OIDAR (Online Information Database Access and Retrieval) service provider as notified under Section 9(5) of the CGST Act, 2017.

Voluntary registration

You can also register voluntarily, even if turnover is below the threshold. Voluntary registration gives you the right to claim input tax credit, charge GST on supplies, and obtain the statutory protection of the GST law. The downside: you must file all monthly/quarterly returns even when there is no activity, and you cannot apply for cancellation simply because the turnover is low.

Documents Required

For a Proprietorship

• PAN of the proprietor
• Aadhaar of the proprietor (mandatory for e-KYC)
• Photograph of the proprietor
• Address proof of the place of business — any one of: electricity bill, property tax receipt, municipal khata copy, or rent agreement + NOC from the owner
• Bank account proof — cancelled cheque, passbook first page, or a bank statement bearing the GSTIN-holder’s name and IFSC
• For a rented premises, the rent agreement and NOC from the landlord (kept on file; presented on query — the NOC is part of the principal place of business proof, not a separate Form GST REG-08 filing)

For a Partnership / LLP

• PAN of the partnership / LLP
• Partnership deed / LLP agreement
• PAN and Aadhaar of all partners / designated partners
• Photographs of the managing partner / designated partner who is the authorised signatory
• Authorisation letter for the authorised signatory (board resolution for a company, partnership authority for a firm, or LLP designated-partner authority for an LLP)
• Address proof of the principal place of business
• Address proof of any additional place of business
• Bank account proof

For a Private Limited / Public Company

• PAN of the company
• Certificate of Incorporation
• PAN and Aadhaar of all directors
• Board resolution authorising a director / authorised signatory to sign the application
• Photographs of the authorised signatory
• Address proof of the registered office
• Bank account proof
• Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) of the authorised signatory — Class 3, valid

For a Trust / Society / HUF

• PAN of the entity
• Trust deed / Society registration certificate / HUF deed
• PAN and Aadhaar of the karta, trustees, or authorised representatives
• Photographs of the authorised signatory
• Address proof of the place of business
• Bank account proof

The Application: Form GST REG-01

The application is filed online at gst.gov.in under Services → Registration → New Registration. It has 10 substantive parts plus a verification part.

Part	What you fill in
Part A	Legal name, PAN, state, reason for registration, business constitution
Part B	Additional places of business, partners / directors, authorised signatory, bank account details, HSN/SAC codes for top-line items
Verification	DSC of the authorised signatory or e-sign via Aadhaar OTP

The application is signed by the authorised signatory using one of three methods: DSC (Class 3), e-Sign (Aadhaar OTP), or Electronic Verification Code (EVC) on the registered mobile of the authorised signatory. Aadhaar OTP-based e-Sign is the fastest and is the default for individuals and proprietorships.

Step-by-Step Filing

Step 1 — Identify your state and the relevant jurisdiction

The state is where your business has its principal place of business. The jurisdiction is determined by the pincode. The portal will auto-suggest the jurisdictional officer based on the address you enter.

Step 2 — Fill Part A

Enter the legal name exactly as it appears on the PAN database. A mismatch between the PAN database name and the application name is the most common Part-A rejection reason.

Step 3 — Fill Part B

Upload the documents listed above. Use PDF for text documents and JPG/PNG for photographs. Each document has a size limit (typically 1 MB per file). Name the files descriptively to ease review.

Step 4 — Submit the application

Once submitted, an Application Reference Number (ARN) is generated. Track the ARN on the GST portal under Services → Registration → Track Application Status.

Step 5 — Respond to any query (if raised)

The officer has 7 working days to either approve or raise a query. A query is communicated to the authorised signatory’s mobile number and email, and a notice is visible on the portal under Notices / Orders. Respond within 7 working days; the officer then has another 7 working days to decide.

Step 6 — Receive the GSTIN

On approval, the GSTIN is auto-generated. The Registration Certificate (Form GST REG-06) is available for download. The GSTIN is 15 characters: the first two are the state code, the next ten are the PAN (positions 3–12), the next two are the entity / location code (positions 13–14; default 00 for single-location registrations), and the 15th is a check digit (alphabetic, calculated from the preceding 14).

Common Rejection Reasons

1. PAN name mismatch. The legal name on the application does not match the PAN database. Correct the PAN database first or change the entity name to match.
2. Aadhaar authentication failure. The mobile number on Aadhaar is not active. Update via the UIDAI portal and re-attempt.
3. Address proof insufficient. The electricity bill is older than 2 months, or the rent agreement is not on stamp paper of the correct state value.
4. Authorised signatory not authorised. The board resolution is missing, or the signatory is a minor, or the DSC is expired.
5. Business activity description too vague. “Providing services” is rejected. Use “providing management consulting services to manufacturing clients” or a similar specific description.
6. Bank account inactive. The bank account was opened but is not operational, or the cancelled cheque image is illegible.

Post-Registration Obligations

Once you have the GSTIN, your clock starts:

Frequency	Return	Due Date
Monthly (turnover > ₹5 crore)	GSTR-1, GSTR-3B	11th (GSTR-1) and 20th (GSTR-3B) of the following month
Quarterly (turnover ≤ ₹5 crore, QRMP)	GSTR-1 (quarterly), GSTR-3B (quarterly with monthly payment via PMT-06)	GSTR-1: 13th of the month following the quarter; GSTR-3B: 22nd or 24th of the following month (state-specific); PMT-06 (monthly tax payment) by 25th of each month
Annual	GSTR-9 (or GSTR-9A for composition)	31 December of the following FY
Annual (composition)	GSTR-4 (annual)	30 April of the following FY

You must also:

• Display the GSTIN on the principal place of business and every additional place of business.
• Print the GSTIN on every tax invoice, bill of supply, credit note, and debit note.
• Issue invoices only after the effective date of registration — for a new registration, this is the date of grant. For a retrospectively-approved application, the effective date may be earlier.
• Maintain accounts, records, and inventories for six years from the due date of the annual return.
• File the intimation of stock (Form GST ITC-01) within 30 days if you have opening stock on which you want to claim ITC.

Voluntary Cancellation

If you registered voluntarily and want to exit — for example, because turnover has fallen and you are not making taxable supplies — you can apply for cancellation in Form GST REG-16. The cancellation takes effect from a date you specify (typically the date of the last taxable supply). Pending tax liability must be paid before the cancellation is granted.

If your registration was suo motu cancelled by the department for non-filing of returns (under Section 29(2) of the CGST Act read with Rule 22 of the CGST Rules), you can apply for revocation in Form GST REG-21 within 30 days of the cancellation order, or within such extended period as the competent authority may allow (generally up to 90 days, in practice).

Common Mistakes

• Filing Part-B incomplete. Many filers skip the HSN/SAC declaration, which makes the registration technically incomplete. List your top 5–10 HSN/SAC codes.
• Choosing the wrong business activity. Selecting “wholesale or retail trade” for a service business leads to a query. Match the activity to the actual operations.
• Using a residential address without consent. Even for a proprietorship, you need an NOC from the property owner if the premises are not owned by the proprietor.
• Not updating the mobile number on Aadhaar. E-Sign via Aadhaar OTP fails silently if the mobile number is out of date. Update via the UIDAI portal before filing.

How We Help

The most common reason a registration gets stuck is the Part-A rejection cycle — you file, the officer queries, you respond, you file again. Each cycle costs a week. A clean first-time file goes through in 7 working days.

If you would like FinTax24 to handle the registration end-to-end, share your entity type and state on WhatsApp. We will tell you the documents required, the fee, and the timeline, and start the filing within 24 hours.

For the corresponding post-registration workflow — invoices, ITC, GSTR-1, GSTR-3B — see our GST return filing service page. For the underlying threshold logic and the inter-state trigger, our composition vs regular GST guide explains the alternative.

Sources

• GST Portal — Registration
• CBIC — GST Acts & Rules
• Income Tax Department — PAN services