GST registration for freelancers: when you must, and how

From the Export Desk, chapter 3 · Look inside the Export Desk

Where is the line?

Section 22(1) of the CGST Act sets it at aggregate turnover of more than ₹20 lakh in a financial year, or more than ₹10 lakh for someone supplying from a special category State (source 1).

Which States are those? Section 22 takes the States listed in article 279A(4)(g) of the Constitution and leaves out Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Sikkim and Uttarakhand (source 1, source 9). Read together, the two texts leave Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura on the ₹10 lakh line. Confirm yours with your CA.

The ₹40 lakh line you may have read about is only for suppliers “engaged exclusively in the supply of goods” (source 1). Freelance work is a supply of services.

What counts towards it?

Section 2(6) counts the value of all taxable supplies, exempt supplies, exports and inter-State supplies of everyone with the same PAN, on an all-India basis, leaving out the taxes themselves (source 2). So:

• Exports count. An invoice to a client in Berlin counts the same as one to a client in Bengaluru.
• Two businesses under one PAN share one total.
• A salary is not a supply. Schedule III treats “services by an employee to the employer in the course of or in relation to his employment” as neither goods nor services (source 8).

Do exporters have to register from the first rupee?

You may have read so. Section 24(i) requires anyone “making any inter-State taxable supply” to register whatever their turnover (source 3), and an export of services is an inter-State supply under section 7(5)(a) of the IGST Act (source 5).

But Notification No. 10/2017-Integrated Tax, of 13 October 2017, exempts people making inter-State supplies of taxable services from registering until their all-India aggregate turnover passes ₹20 lakh, or ₹10 lakh in special category States (source 6). Ask your CA to confirm how it applies to you.

When must you apply?

Within 30 days of the date you become liable (section 25(1), source 4). For most freelancers that is the date of the invoice that takes the year past the line. Apply within the 30 days and the GST portal dates your registration from the day you became liable (source 7).

Registering by choice is allowed below the line, and then every rule for registered people applies to you (section 25(3), source 4).

How do you apply on the GST portal?

1. Part A. Services > Registration > New Registration. Enter your State, legal name, PAN, mobile number and email, confirm the two one-time codes, and note the TRN (source 7).
2. Part B. Log in with the TRN and fill in each tab of Form GST REG-01: the business, the people, the place of business and the services.
3. Aadhaar authentication. Say yes, and finish it from the link you’re sent; without it, verification at a GST Suvidha Kendra is needed.
4. Sign and submit with EVC, e-signature or a DSC, and note the ARN.
5. Wait for approval. If your papers are in order, the officer approves within seven working days; if Aadhaar authentication isn’t done, or a physical check is chosen, within thirty days (rule 9, source 10).

What comes after registration?

If you invoice clients abroad without IGST, file an LUT before your first export invoice as a registered person: the LUT guide has the steps. Then each export invoice needs the ten lines in the export invoice guide, and returns follow every month or quarter.

From the kit. In the Export Desk, chapter 3 works through a year that crosses the line, quarter by quarter, and the workbook’s Turnover watch sheet shows your “register by” date as you go.

Free: check an export invoice against the ten lines, also on one A4 page, free.

Questions to ask your CA

1. Is my State on the ₹20 lakh or the ₹10 lakh line?
2. Given the work I expect this year, should I register by choice?
3. How do I treat invoices I issue between crossing the line and getting my GSTIN?
4. Monthly returns, or quarterly?

Sources

1. Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs. Section 22, Persons liable for registration, CGST Act, 2017, the CBIC’s own text, with its provisos and Explanation (iii). Primary source. Read on 1 November 2026.
2. Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs. Section 2, Definitions, CGST Act, 2017. Clause (6), aggregate turnover. Primary source. Read on 1 November 2026.
3. Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs. Section 24, Compulsory registration in certain cases, CGST Act, 2017. Primary source. Read on 1 November 2026.
4. Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs. Section 25, Procedure for registration, CGST Act, 2017. Sub-sections (1) and (3). Primary source. Read on 1 November 2026.
5. Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs. Section 7, Inter-State supply, IGST Act, 2017. Sub-section (5)(a). Primary source. Read on 1 November 2026.
6. Central Board of Excise and Customs (now the CBIC). Notification No. 10/2017-Integrated Tax, 13 October 2017, as first issued. Primary source. Read on 1 November 2026.
7. Goods and Services Tax Network. Apply for registration as a normal taxpayer, the GST portal’s user guide. Primary source. Read on 1 November 2026.
8. Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs. Schedule III, CGST Act, 2017. Paragraph 1. Primary source. Read on 1 November 2026.
9. Legislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice. The Constitution of India, as on 1 May 2024. Article 279A(4)(g). Primary source. Read on 1 November 2026.
10. Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs. Rule 9, Verification of the application and approval, CGST Rules, 2017. Sub-rule (1). Primary source. Read on 1 November 2026.

What changed in this guide

• 1 November 2026. Sources read again before publishing.
• 20 October 2026. Written, and checked against the sources above.