Input credit for F.Y.20-21

The deadline for claiming Input Tax Credit (ITC) for any financial year is governed by Section 16(4) of the CGST Act.

The Rule

According to Section 16(4), you cannot claim ITC for an invoice or debit note pertaining to a specific financial year after the earlier of these two dates:

1. 30th November following the end of that financial year.

2. The actual date of filing the annual return (GSTR-9) for that financial year.

Application to FY 2020-21

For the Financial Year 2020-21, the legal deadline for claiming any missed ITC was the earlier of:

• 30th November 2021

• The date of filing the annual return (GSTR-9) for FY 2020-21.

Since that deadline has long passed, it is generally no longer possible to claim ITC for invoices pertaining to FY 2020-21.

Important Considerations

• Validity of Claim: Under the current GST law, ITC must be reflected in your GSTR-2B to be eligible for claim. Even if an invoice was missed, it would not be auto-populated in your GSTR-3B after the statutory deadline.

• Exception (Revocation of Cancellation): There are rare exceptions in specific legal scenarios where registration was cancelled and subsequently revoked, potentially allowing for the filing of past returns. However, this does not change the fundamental statutory time limit under Section 16(4) for normal operations.

• Clarification on Debit Notes: Note that from 1st January 2021, the law was amended to delink the date of a debit note from the underlying invoice. A debit note is now treated as a separate document for the purpose of the time limit; its eligibility is determined by the financial year in which the debit note itself was issued.

Summary: The deadline to claim ITC for the financial year 2020-21 was 30th November 2021 (or the date of the annual return, whichever was earlier). As this date has passed, the opportunity to claim that credit is legally closed.