GSTR-4: Due Date, Late Fee and Who Must File (2026)

Who must file GSTR-4

• Every registered person paying tax under the composition levy in section 10 of the CGST Act — goods dealers and mixed suppliers with aggregate turnover up to ₹1.5 crore in the preceding financial year.
• The threshold drops to ₹75 lakh for registered persons in eight special category states: Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttarakhand.
• Service providers and mixed suppliers under the separate 6 per cent composition scheme for services, with turnover up to ₹50 lakh, also file GSTR-4 — they are covered by the same special procedure even though their scheme sits outside section 10(1).
• One GSTR-4 per financial year per GSTIN, not per quarter. A taxpayer who was under composition for only part of the year — because they opted in or withdrew partway through — still files GSTR-4 for that part-year.

Turnover thresholds: Notification No. 14/2019-Central Tax dated 7 March 2019 (₹1.5 crore general limit, ₹75 lakh for the eight listed states, effective 1 April 2019), issued under the proviso to section 10(1) of the CGST Act. The services scheme is Notification No. 2/2019-Central Tax (Rate) dated 7 March 2019 (3 per cent CGST, mirrored by 3 per cent SGST, on turnover up to ₹50 lakh).

GSTR-4 due date

GSTR-4 is filed once a year. For FY 2024-25 onwards, the due date is 30 June following the end of the financial year — so GSTR-4 for FY 2025-26 is due by 30 June 2026.

Before that change, the due date was 30 April following the financial year. Composition taxpayers used to the earlier deadline should note the two-month extension now in place.

Rule 62(1) of the CGST Rules, 2017, as amended by Notification No. 12/2024-Central Tax dated 10 July 2024. The original 30 April deadline was set out in the same rule (and, for FY 2019-20 onwards, in para 3 of Notification No. 21/2019-Central Tax dated 23 April 2019) before that 2024 amendment.

GSTR-4 and CMP-08 are two separate filings

GSTR-4 is not the only compliance composition taxpayers owe during the year. Every quarter they also file FORM GST CMP-08 — a short statement declaring the self-assessed tax paid for that quarter — by the 18th day of the month after the quarter ends.

CMP-08 carries the quarterly tax payment; GSTR-4 is the once-a-year return that consolidates the full year of turnover and tax details on top of the four payments already made. Filing both on time is treated as compliance with the outward-supply statement and return obligations that would otherwise apply under sections 37 and 39 of the CGST Act.

Notification No. 21/2019-Central Tax dated 23 April 2019, para 2 (CMP-08 due by the 18th of the month following the quarter) and para 4 (CMP-08 plus GSTR-4 deemed compliance with sections 37 and 39).

How this differs from the old quarterly GSTR-4

Until FY 2018-19, GSTR-4 itself was a quarterly return — composition dealers filed one every quarter, due by the 18th of the following month.

Notification No. 21/2019-Central Tax dated 23 April 2019 replaced that regime from FY 2019-20 onwards. Quarterly GSTR-4 was withdrawn. In its place, composition taxpayers file the lighter CMP-08 statement every quarter — payment only, without invoice-level detail — and one consolidated GSTR-4 annually.

In practice, composition taxpayers went from four detailed quarterly returns a year to four quick tax-payment statements plus one annual return. It is a real simplification, but it also means the annual GSTR-4 now carries a full year of turnover data instead of three months.

Notification No. 21/2019-Central Tax dated 23 April 2019, paragraphs 2 to 4.

Late fee for missing the GSTR-4 due date

Late fee for a delayed GSTR-4 is charged under section 47(1) of the CGST Act, but the amount is capped by a separate notification rather than left open-ended.

For FY 2021-22 onwards, the late fee is capped at ₹2,000 in total (₹1,000 CGST plus ₹1,000 SGST) where the return shows tax payable, and at ₹500 in total (₹250 CGST plus ₹250 SGST) where the return is nil.

Notification No. 21/2021-Central Tax dated 1 June 2021, which inserted this cap into the principal late-fee notification No. 73/2017-Central Tax dated 29 December 2017, for FY 2021-22 onwards.

Amnesty windows for old pending GSTR-4 returns come and go

Beyond the standing cap above, the government has periodically opened short amnesty windows that waive GSTR-4 late fees further for taxpayers catching up on old pending returns. One such window ran from 1 April to 30 June 2023, fully waiving the late fee on nil GSTR-4 returns and capping others at ₹500, for returns covering periods from July 2017 to FY 2021-22.

These windows are announced by fresh notification, run for a limited time, and are not guaranteed to repeat. If you have a pending GSTR-4 from an earlier year, check the current CBIC notifications for an active amnesty before assuming only the standing ₹2,000 or ₹500 cap applies — a live window could reduce it further.

Example: Notification No. 02/2023-Central Tax dated 31 March 2023. This is not a standing rule — confirm against the current CBIC notifications list for whether a similar window is open before relying on it. Composition filers also pay quarterly through CMP-08.

Primary sources

The dates and fees on this page are read off the statute and CBIC’s own notifications, not copied from other guides. You can check every one of them:

• Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 — sections 47 (late fee) and 50 (interest)
• CBIC — GST notifications and circulars
• CBIC — GST portal
• GST portal (gst.gov.in) — where the return is actually filed