What is the last date to claim ITC on my purchase invoices for the year?

You are going through your purchase register and find invoices from last year that you never took credit on. A vendor billed you in August 2025. The tax was charged and paid. The invoice sat in a folder, and nobody claimed the input tax credit (ITC) in your monthly return. You want to know: is it too late?

For a company, this is often real money. An invoice can be missed because a supplier uploaded it late, the accounts team held it for a query, or a director's reimbursement bill reached the office months after the date on it.

The short answer is that there is a hard calendar date, and it is close.

The rule in plain words

Section 16(4) of the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act, 2017 says a registered person "shall not be entitled to take input tax credit in respect of any invoice or debit note for supply of goods or services or both after the thirtieth day of November following the end of financial year to which such invoice or debit note pertains or furnishing of the relevant annual return, whichever is earlier."

Three points sit inside that sentence.

1. The clock runs from the year of the invoice, not the date you receive it. The financial year is April to March. The year the invoice "pertains" to fixes the cut-off.

As on 3 November 2026, you have until 30 November 2026 for anything dated in FY 2025-26. That is about four weeks.

2. "Whichever is earlier." If you furnish the relevant annual return before 30 November, that earlier event closes the window. Rule 80 of the CGST Rules, 2017 sets the annual return in FORM GSTR-9 on or before the thirty-first day of December following the end of the financial year. So the annual return normally falls after the 30 November cut-off. But nothing stops a company from filing it early. If your finance team files GSTR-9 for FY 2025-26 on 15 November, you will have lost the right to claim FY 2025-26 credit that was still unclaimed on that day. Hold the annual return until all the credit you intend to take is in.

3. The cut-off is for taking the credit. Credit is taken in the return under Section 39 (GSTR-3B). So the practical test is: has the credit been claimed in a GSTR-3B filed by 30 November? A return filed in December for the November tax period is after the date. Whether a particular return can still carry the claim in your case, for example if you are a quarterly filer, is something to check against your own filing calendar.

What this means for the company in practice

Think of the 30 November date as a year-end sweep. Before it, every eligible invoice for the year should be in a filed GSTR-3B. After it, an invoice that was not claimed is a permanent loss for that year. Section 16(4) gives no later date for it.

Is the invoice even eligible? Do these checks first

The deadline is only one condition. Section 16(2) of the CGST Act sets others, and a late claim on an ineligible invoice only creates a later problem. Check each missed invoice:

• Do you hold a tax invoice or debit note from a registered supplier (Section 16(2)(a))?
• Has the supplier reported it? Section 16(2)(aa) needs the supplier to have furnished the invoice details in the statement of outward supplies (GSTR-1), and these must have been communicated to you.
• Is the credit visible and unrestricted in GSTR-2B? Section 16(2)(ba) requires that the credit communicated to you under Section 38 "has not been restricted". Rule 36(4) of the CGST Rules, 2017 adds that no ITC may be availed on invoices that the supplier must report under Section 37(1) unless they were furnished in GSTR-1 and the credit has been communicated to you in FORM GSTR-2B.
• Have you received the goods or services (Section 16(2)(b))?
• Has the tax actually been paid to the Government, in cash or by using ITC (Section 16(2)(c))?
• Have you furnished the return under Section 39 (Section 16(2)(d))?
• Is it a blocked credit? Section 17(5) bars credit on certain items. Do not claim these just because the date is near.

If the supplier never reported the invoice, you cannot fix this yourself in your return. Ask the supplier to file the missing details. They face the same calendar. The supplier's own cut-off for correcting an omitted invoice is a related, separate question.

The 180-day payment rule

The second proviso to Section 16(2) says if you do not pay a supplier the value of the supply and the tax within one hundred and eighty days from the date of issue of the invoice, you must pay back an amount equal to the credit with interest under Section 50. This does not apply to supplies on which tax is payable on reverse charge. Rule 37(1) of the CGST Rules sets the manner: the amount is paid or reversed in GSTR-3B for the period immediately after those 180 days.

Rule 37(4) matters here. It says the time limit in Section 16(4) "shall not apply to a claim for re-availing of any credit" that had been reversed earlier. Once you pay the supplier, you may re-avail the credit under Rule 37(2) without being hit by the 30 November date. Keep a clear record of what you reversed and when. Reversed credit is not the same as credit never claimed. A credit you never took in the first place is covered by the 30 November limit.

When the supplier has not filed their GSTR-3B

Rule 37A of the CGST Rules covers this. Suppose you claimed credit on an invoice that the supplier reported in GSTR-1, but the supplier has not furnished their GSTR-3B for the matching period by the thirtieth day of September following the end of the financial year. Then you must reverse that credit in a GSTR-3B filed on or before the thirtieth day of November following the end of that financial year. If you do not, the amount is payable with interest under Section 50. If the supplier files later, you may re-avail the credit in a later GSTR-3B.

So 30 November is both a claim date and a reversal date. Review the ledger of each large supplier before it arrives.

Special windows that are now closed or narrow

Section 16(5) and Section 16(6) were inserted by the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2024 (notified through Notification No. 17/2024-CT dated 27.09.2024).

• Section 16(5) let a registered person take credit on invoices or debit notes for FY 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 in any return under Section 39 filed up to the thirtieth day of November, 2021. That date is long past. It does not help an FY 2025-26 invoice.
• Section 16(6) deals with a registration cancelled under Section 29 and later revived by an order under Section 30, or by the Appellate Authority, Appellate Tribunal or a court. If the credit was not already barred under Section 16(4) on the date of the cancellation order, the person may take it in a return filed up to the 30 November following the financial year or the annual return, whichever is earlier, or, for the period from cancellation to the revocation order, within thirty days of the revocation order, whichever is later. If your company's registration was cancelled and revived, take advice on this point.

Neither is a general extension. We found no notification on file in our records that moves the 30 November date in Section 16(4) for FY 2025-26. Check the GST portal and the CBIC site for anything issued after the date of this article.

Interest if you take credit wrongly

If you rush a claim on an invoice that turns out to be ineligible and you use it, Section 50(3) of the CGST Act applies. It says where ITC has been "wrongly availed and utilised", interest is payable at a rate not exceeding twenty-four per cent, as notified. Check the notified rate on the GST portal.

Step by step before 30 November 2026

• Pull the list. From your books, list every purchase invoice and debit note dated 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 on which ITC has not been claimed.
• Match against GSTR-2B for each tax period, and against the purchase register.
• Sort into three groups: visible in GSTR-2B and eligible; not visible because the supplier has not reported; blocked under Section 17(5).
• Claim the first group in your next GSTR-3B, in good time before 30 November 2026.
• Write to the suppliers in the second group this week. Ask them to report the invoice. Keep the email.
• Do not file GSTR-9 for FY 2025-26 yet if any eligible credit remains to be claimed.
• Check large suppliers' filings for Rule 37A.
• List the credit you cannot claim and take your CA's advice on how to account for it.

What not to do

• Do not assume the 30 November date will move. Section 16(4) states a fixed date and we found no notification extending it for FY 2025-26.
• Do not claim credit on an invoice that is not in GSTR-2B and hope to defend it later. Rule 36(4) requires it to be there.
• Do not treat a reversed credit as lost. Rule 37(4) keeps your right to re-avail on payment.
• Do not file the annual return early out of habit.

What to do now

• Next step: list all unclaimed FY 2025-26 invoices and check each against GSTR-2B (Section 16(2)(aa) and (ba), CGST Act, 2017; Rule 36(4), CGST Rules, 2017).
• Deadline: 30 November 2026 for FY 2025-26 invoices, or earlier if the relevant annual return is furnished first (Section 16(4), CGST Act, 2017).
• Consequence of missing it: you are not entitled to take the credit for that invoice (Section 16(4)). Credit wrongly taken and used attracts interest under Section 50(3).

Have a CA review your facts before you act or file.

FAQs

1. Does the 30 November cut-off apply to debit notes too?
Section 16(4) names "invoice or debit note". Both are counted by the financial year to which they pertain. This article does not cover how a credit note issued by a supplier affects your credit.

2. I paid the supplier late and reversed the credit. Is it gone?
Not necessarily. Under Rule 37(2), once you make the payment you may re-avail the credit, and Rule 37(4) says the Section 16(4) time limit does not apply to such re-availing.

3. Our invoice is dated March 2026 but we received it in June 2026. Which year is it?
Section 16(4) looks at the financial year to which the invoice "pertains". The section does not define that word. An invoice dated March 2026 is ordinarily read as FY 2025-26, with a cut-off of 30 November 2026, but ask your CA to confirm the year, especially if the invoice date and the supply fall in different years.

4. We are a quarterly filer. Does anything change?
The date in Section 16(4) does not change. How the claim fits into your quarterly return is a filing-calendar question. Ask your CA, and check the dates on the GST portal before you file.

5. The annual return for FY 2025-26 is already filed. Can we still claim?
For invoices of that year, the annual return is the earlier event, so Section 16(4) bars a fresh claim from that point. Ask your CA whether any other route exists for your case.

6. The supplier filed GSTR-1 late and the invoice appeared in GSTR-2B only after 30 November. What now?
Section 16(4) bars the claim after the date, even if the delay was the supplier's. Take advice on the commercial position with the supplier.

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See Also

• Where do I report reverse charge (RCM) in GSTR-3B?
• We forgot an invoice in GSTR-1 and our buyer cannot see it. What now?
• Supplier invoice rejected or pending in IMS: what it means for your input tax credit