E-invoicing has been extended in steps since 2020. Today, if your business's aggregate turnover has crossed ₹5 crore in any year since 2017-18, every B2B invoice, credit note and debit note needs an IRN from the government's Invoice Registration Portal. Here is the limit for FY 2026-27, how turnover is counted, which documents are covered, the time limits for reporting and cancelling, how to check your GSTIN's status and how to verify an e-invoice QR code. To check your own case, use the e-invoice applicability checker.
E-invoice turnover limit for FY 2026-27
For FY 2026-27, e-invoicing is mandatory for registered persons whose aggregate turnover in any financial year from 2017-18 onwards exceeds ₹5 crore. This limit has applied since 1 August 2023 (Notification 10/2023-Central Tax), and the financial year 2026-27 did not bring a new one: as of 20 October 2026 no lower limit has been notified. Proposals to lower it further appear in the news from time to time; act only on a notification.
| Question | Answer for FY 2026-27 |
|---|---|
| E-invoice turnover limit | ₹5 crore aggregate turnover in any financial year from 2017-18 onwards |
| Latest notification | Notification 10/2023-Central Tax (10 May 2023), in force from 1 August 2023. No lower limit notified as of 20 October 2026 |
| RCM self-invoices (RCMDOM / RCMIMP) | Not required yet: recommended by the 57th Council; IRP facility in sandbox only (GSTN, 16 October 2026) |
| Turnover below ₹5 crore in every year | E-invoicing not required; issue regular GST invoices |
| Time limit to report to the IRP | 30 days from the document date if AATO is ₹10 crore or more; no portal cut-off below ₹10 crore |
| Time limit to cancel | 24 hours from reporting, whole invoice only |
Year-wise e-invoice turnover limits
| Applicable from | Aggregate turnover above | Notification (Central Tax) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 October 2020 | ₹500 crore | 13/2020, 61/2020 |
| 1 January 2021 | ₹100 crore | 88/2020 |
| 1 April 2021 | ₹50 crore | 5/2021 |
| 1 April 2022 | ₹20 crore | 1/2022 |
| 1 October 2022 | ₹10 crore | 17/2022 |
| 1 August 2023 | ₹5 crore (current limit) | 10/2023 |
The same dates appear in the notified-AATO table on NIC's e-invoice portal. If you found an older article quoting ₹20 crore (from 1 April 2022) or ₹10 crore (from 1 October 2022), those limits were replaced by ₹5 crore from 1 August 2023.
How turnover is counted
- PAN-wide: add up all GSTINs registered under the same PAN, across states.
- What's included: taxable, exempt and nil-rated supplies, exports and inter-state supplies.
- Is GST included? No. Aggregate turnover (Section 2(6) of the CGST Act) excludes CGST, SGST/UTGST, IGST and compensation cess, and the value of purchases on which you pay tax under reverse charge.
- Any year counts: crossing ₹5 crore in any one year since 2017-18 is enough, and the obligation continues even if turnover later falls.
Which documents need an IRN?
| Covered | Not covered |
|---|---|
| Tax invoices to registered buyers (B2B) | Invoices to consumers and unregistered buyers (B2C) |
| Credit notes and debit notes to registered buyers | Bills of supply |
| Exports, with or without IGST | Delivery challans |
| Supplies to SEZ units and developers; deemed exports | Imports (bill of entry) |
| B2B supplies where the buyer pays tax under reverse charge | Input Service Distributor invoices |
Businesses with aggregate turnover above ₹500 crore must also print a dynamic QR code on B2C invoices (Notification 14/2020-Central Tax), although no IRN is generated for them.
Who is exempt even above ₹5 crore?
- SEZ units (SEZ developers are not exempt)
- Insurers, banking companies and financial institutions, including NBFCs
- Goods transport agencies transporting goods by road
- Suppliers of passenger transport services
- Admission to films in multiplex screens
- Government departments and local authorities
Exempt businesses that have been enabled on the e-invoice portal can file an exemption declaration there.
How an e-invoice is generated
- Create the invoice in your billing or accounting software as usual.
- Prepare its data in the standard e-invoice schema (INV-01), as JSON. Many billing systems do this for you; the IRP also offers offline tools and APIs.
- Upload it to an Invoice Registration Portal: the NIC portal at einvoice1.gst.gov.in or another GSTN-authorised IRP.
- The IRP validates the data and checks for duplicates, then returns the IRN (a unique 64-character reference) and a digitally signed QR code.
- Print the QR code on the invoice and share it with the buyer. The details flow to your GSTR-1 automatically, and to the e-way bill system if you add transport details.
E-invoice time limit: the 30-day rule
From 1 April 2025, taxpayers with AATO of ₹10 crore or more cannot report a document to the IRP more than 30 days after its date. GSTN's own example: an invoice dated 1 April 2025 cannot be reported after 30 April 2025. The rule applies to invoices, credit notes and debit notes. (Between November 2023 and March 2025 it applied only to AATO of ₹100 crore or more.) Below ₹10 crore there is no such restriction at present.
| Your AATO | Time limit to report to the IRP | What still applies |
|---|---|---|
| Up to ₹5 crore (never crossed in any year since 2017-18) | Not applicable: e-invoicing isn't required | Regular GST invoice rules (Rule 46) |
| Above ₹5 crore but below ₹10 crore | No portal cut-off at present | The invoice must carry its IRN (Rule 48(4)); without one it isn't a valid invoice (Rule 48(5)). Report before you hand the invoice over |
| ₹10 crore or more | Within 30 days of the document date | The IRP rejects older documents. The 24-hour cancellation window applies to everyone |
"No cut-off" below ₹10 crore doesn't mean you can report late: an e-invoicing taxpayer's invoice without an IRN is not a valid invoice, so the buyer's input tax credit depends on it. The safe habit is to generate the IRN when you raise the invoice.
Cancelling an e-invoice: the 24-hour rule
An IRN can't be edited or deleted once it is generated. According to GSTN's e-invoice FAQs, you can only cancel it, and only within a short window:
| Question | Answer (GSTN e-invoice FAQs) |
|---|---|
| Time limit to cancel | Within 24 hours of reporting the invoice to the IRP |
| Partial cancellation? | No. The whole e-invoice must be cancelled |
| E-way bill linked to it? | Not allowed while the connected e-way bill is active, or once an officer has verified it in transit |
| Can the invoice number be reused? | No, not even within the 24 hours. The IRN is built from your GSTIN, document number, document type and financial year, so the corrected invoice needs a new number |
| Effect on GSTR-1 | The cancelled status is updated in GSTR-1 |
| Amending an e-invoice | Not possible on the IRP. Changes are made on the GST portal while filing GSTR-1, or through GSTR-1 amendments if it is already filed, and are flagged to the tax officer |
- After 24 hours the IRP will not cancel the IRN. GSTR-1 must show the invoices you actually issued, so make the correction there. If goods come back or the price falls, the usual route is a credit note, which itself needs an IRN. Ask your tax adviser which applies to your case.
- Invoice numbers are not case-sensitive. Since 1 June 2025 the IRP converts document numbers to capitals before generating an IRN, so “inv-101” and “INV-101” count as the same number (GSTN advisory).
- Before you generate the IRN, check the buyer's GSTIN, HSN codes, rates and totals. Once it's generated, the only fix is to cancel within 24 hours or correct it in GSTR-1.
How to check your e-invoice status on the portal
NIC's e-invoice portal has a free e-invoice enablement status search for any GSTIN:
- Open the portal's Status of e-Invoice enablement of Taxpayer page on einvoice1.gst.gov.in (no login needed).
- Enter the GSTIN and the captcha and submit.
- The portal shows whether the GSTIN is enabled for e-invoicing, next to its table of notified turnover limits and dates.
- Enablement is not the same as obligation. The portal says the list is for facilitation only and is based on GSTN's turnover computation from GSTR-3B returns. If you are exempt, or e-invoicing doesn't apply to you for another reason, you can ignore the enablement status.
- Required but not enabled? The legal duty under Rule 48(4) is yours. Use Registration → e-Invoice Enablement on the portal.
- Enabled but your PAN never crossed the notified turnover? The portal asks you to raise a ticket on the GST self-service portal (selfservice.gstsystem.in).
- To work out the answer for a specific document, use our e-invoice applicability checker.
How to verify an e-invoice QR code
Every e-invoice carries a QR code signed by the IRP. Buyers, transporters and officers can check it is genuine:
- Scan it with an authorised app. GSTN's e-Services app replaced the old e-Invoice QR Code Verifier app in October 2024. It needs no login, verifies the QR code and shows the live status of the IRN. GSTN's list of authorised verification apps also includes NIC's QR Code Verify app (IRP-1 and 2), Cygnet's IRP App, EY's Invoice Registration Portal app and IRIS's Peridot. All are valid and work for invoices from any IRP; Clear IRP has no app.
- Search the IRN online on the e-invoice portal (einvoice.gst.gov.in), which GSTN recommends for further checks.
- Match the details. The QR code holds the supplier and buyer GSTINs, invoice number and date, invoice value, number of line items, HSN of the main item, the IRN and its generation date. They should match the printed invoice.
- The QR code must be printed on the invoice itself, not on a separate sheet.
- During transport, the QR code can be shown electronically instead of a printed invoice copy (Rule 138A(2)).
- The dynamic QR code that businesses above ₹500 crore print on B2C invoices is a different requirement. It isn't an e-invoice QR code and has no IRN.
What the 57th GST Council recommended (8 October 2026)
The 57th GST Council did not change the ₹5 crore e-invoice limit. It recommended extending e-invoicing, for taxpayers with aggregate annual turnover of ₹5 crore and above, to two kinds of documents not covered today: domestic purchases from unregistered persons where you pay tax under reverse charge, and import of services. This is a recommendation only. It applies once the government notifies it, and no notification had been issued as of 20 October 2026. We will update this page when it is.
E-invoice for RCM self-invoices: RCMDOM and RCMIMP (GSTN, 16 October 2026)
On 16 October 2026 GSTN announced how the IRPs will handle this (GSTN advisory). Two new supply types are being added to the e-invoice schema, so that the recipient, not the supplier, can report its self-invoice and get an IRN:
| Supply type | Used for |
|---|---|
| RCMDOM | Self-invoice for specified domestic supplies received from an unregistered person, where you (the registered recipient) pay tax under reverse charge |
| RCMIMP | Self-invoice for import of services from a supplier outside India, where you pay tax under reverse charge |
| Position on 20 October 2026 | After the government notifies it | |
|---|---|---|
| Is an IRN needed for an RCM self-invoice? | No. Self-invoices are outside e-invoicing today | Yes, for recipients with AATO of ₹5 crore and above, from the notified date |
| Where the facility is | Only in the sandbox (test) environment of all six IRPs, for software providers and ERPs to test | Production IRPs; the rollout date “would be communicated in due time” |
| What decides scope and start date | Pending notifications under GST law | The notification itself, plus NIC IRP-1's release note on validations |
What to do now:
- Keep issuing the self-invoice as today: within 30 days of receiving the supply (Rule 47A, in force from 1 November 2024 under Notification 20/2024-CT), with a payment voucher when you pay the supplier (Rule 52). Report the reverse-charge tax in GSTR-3B Table 3.1(d). Free format with a payment voucher sheet: self invoice format under RCM.
- Don't confuse it with RCM sales. If you are a registered supplier above ₹5 crore and your buyer pays the tax under reverse charge, that B2B invoice already needs an IRN (see the table of covered documents above).
- Ask your e-invoicing provider (GSP, ERP or billing software) whether it is testing RCMDOM and RCMIMP, so you are ready when the date is notified.
- Watch the notification and the production date. We will update this page and the e-invoice checker when they are issued.
Mistakes and penalties
- No IRN, no valid invoice: for a business covered by e-invoicing, an invoice without an IRN is not treated as an invoice (Rule 48(5)). The buyer's input tax credit is at risk, and penalties under Section 122 can apply.
- Common rejections: wrong buyer GSTIN, an invalid HSN code, a duplicate document number, or tax amounts that don't add up.
Where VelBooks fits
Clean invoice data is the foundation of e-invoicing. VelBooks keeps GSTINs, HSN codes and the tax split consistent on every invoice. If you need IRNs generated from your invoices, talk to us about your requirements. Check your obligations with the e-invoice checker.
Sources
- CGST Rule 48 (CBIC)
- GSTN manual on e-invoice exemptions (lists notifications)
- GSTN advisory: 30-day reporting limit for AATO ₹10 crore+
- CBIC e-invoice FAQ (Hyderabad zone)
- GSTN: GST e-invoice/IRN system FAQs (cancellation, QR code)
- GSTN advisory: e-Services app replaces the QR Code Verifier app (1 Oct 2024)
- GSTN: authorised e-invoice verification apps (Nov 2024, PDF)
- GSTN advisory: case-insensitive invoice numbers for IRN (4 Apr 2025)
- e-Invoice portal (NIC)
- NIC e-invoice portal: status of e-invoice enablement and notified AATO dates
- PIB: Recommendations of the 57th GST Council meeting (8 Oct 2026)
- GSTN advisory: e-invoicing for RCM self-invoices, RCMDOM / RCMIMP (16 Oct 2026)
- Notification 20/2024-Central Tax (Rule 47A, self-invoice within 30 days)
This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; check the official sources above or consult your tax adviser.