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Free tool · CGST s.22

Have you crossed the GST line?

Most freelancers find out months late. Enter what you have billed so far this financial year and where you are based — this tells you whether registration is already due, and when your current run rate takes you past the limit.

Your year so far

₹

Everything billed on your PAN across all clients — including exempt supplies and exports, before any platform fee is taken out.

September

The financial year starts in April. 6 months takes you to the end of September.

Sets your threshold. Only four States use the lower limit.

Worked example

Designer in Pune, ₹14L billed by September — has she crossed?

Where she stands: ₹14,00,000 across six months (April to September), all services, Maharashtra. Her threshold is ₹20,00,000 — Maharashtra is not a special category State. She has ₹6,00,000 of headroom and has not crossed.

Where the run rate takes her: ₹14L over six months is ₹2,33,333 a month, which annualises to ₹28L. At that pace the ₹20L line falls in December, about three months out — so registration is not due today but is coming inside this financial year.

The part that catches people: if ₹5L of that ₹14L was billed to a US client, it still counts. Exports are zero-rated, not excluded from aggregate turnover. And if she bills through a platform that takes 20%, the figure that counts is the ₹14L invoiced — not the ₹11.2L that reached her bank.

Same numbers in Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram or Tripura and she crossed months ago: those four States sit at ₹10L, so she passed the line in about the fourth month and registration was due within 30 days of it.

The four States, and the seven that get wrongly added

CGST Act s.22(1), first proviso, read with Explanation (iii) to s.22sets a lower ₹10 lakh limit for “special category States”. Article 279A(4)(g) lists eleven of them — Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand — but Explanation (iii) then removes Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Uttarakhand. What is left is four: Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura. Nearly every list online prints all eleven, which puts a freelancer in Assam or Himachal on a threshold half the size of their real one.

How this works

The threshold, in plain terms.

What is the GST registration threshold for freelancers in India?
₹20 lakh of aggregate turnover in a financial year for a supplier of services, under Section 22 of the CGST Act. In four States — Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura — it is ₹10 lakh. The ₹40 lakh figure you will see quoted everywhere is for suppliers of goods only and never applies to a freelancer supplying services.
Which States actually have the ₹10 lakh threshold?
Only four: Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura. Most published lists name eleven "special category States", but Explanation (iii) to Section 22 excludes Jammu and Kashmir plus Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Sikkim and Uttarakhand. A service provider in any of those seven is on ₹20 lakh, not ₹10 lakh.
What counts toward aggregate turnover?
More than you probably think. Aggregate turnover is computed on an all-India basis across every GSTIN on the same PAN, and it includes taxable supplies, exempt supplies, exports and inter-state supplies. It is measured on what you billed, before any platform fee is deducted — so a freelancer on Upwork counts the gross invoiced to the client, not the payout that landed. It excludes GST itself and inward supplies taxed under reverse charge.
Do exports of service count toward the threshold?
Yes. Exports are zero-rated, not exempt from the turnover computation — they count in full toward aggregate turnover. This catches a lot of freelancers billing only foreign clients who assume no Indian GST means no Indian threshold. Note that filing under an LUT, which is how you export without paying IGST, requires registration in the first place.
My client is in another state. Does that force me to register?
Not for services. Section 24 makes registration compulsory for anyone making inter-state taxable supplies, but Notification 10/2017 — Integrated Tax exempts suppliers of inter-state taxable SERVICES whose aggregate turnover is within the ₹20 lakh (₹10 lakh) limit. So a designer in Pune billing a client in Bengaluru stays below the threshold on the same footing as a purely local one. This is different for goods, where the compulsory-registration rule does bite.
I crossed the threshold months ago. What happens now?
Register as soon as you can. Liability runs from the date you became liable, not the date you applied, and Section 25 requires the application within 30 days of becoming liable. Invoices raised after crossing should have carried GST, so the amount at stake grows for as long as it goes unaddressed — you may end up paying tax you never collected from the client. Talk to a CA about the specific period rather than guessing.
Should I register voluntarily before I have to?
Sometimes. If your clients are GST-registered businesses, they cannot claim input credit on an invoice from an unregistered supplier, which makes you marginally more expensive than a registered competitor. Against that, registration means monthly or quarterly returns forever, in every month including the ones you bill nothing. If your clients are individuals or foreign companies, there is usually no advantage in registering early.

This checks the Section 22 registration threshold for a resident supplier of services, using aggregate turnover on an all-India basis for one PAN. It does not cover the Section 24 categories that require registration regardless of turnover — casual taxable persons, non-residents, agents, and persons liable under reverse charge among them — nor the composition scheme, which is not available to most service providers. Confirm your own position with a CA before registering or deciding not to.

Related guides

Continue your calculation

Related glossary

Plain-English definitions of the terms behind this calculator.