Do I Have to Issue e-Invoices? The ₹5 Crore GST Threshold for FY 2026-27

• →The threshold is tested on aggregate turnover, the PAN-level total of all your GST registrations, not on any single GSTIN or branch.
• →Once you cross ₹5 crore in even one financial year from 2017-18 onward, e-invoicing stays mandatory, even if a later year falls back below ₹5 crore.
• →Why it matters: an invoice that should carry an Invoice Reference Number (IRN) but does not is not a valid tax invoice under Rule 48(5) of the CGST Rules. Your buyer then loses input tax credit, the GST they paid you that they were entitled to set off, and you face a penalty for an incorrect invoice.
• →The ₹5 crore figure is year-variable: the GST Council has discussed cutting it to ₹2 crore, but as of FY 2026-27 no lower threshold has been notified. Check the CBIC notifications page before assuming you are below the line.

• →It is computed across every GSTIN registered under the same PAN, so a business with units in three states adds all three together.
• →It includes exempt and zero-rated supplies, not only the taxable ones, which pulls some businesses over the line sooner than they expect.
• →It excludes the GST itself (CGST, SGST, IGST, and cess) and the value of inward supplies taxed under reverse charge, where you pay the tax instead of your supplier.
• →The test reaches back: a year as far back as 2017-18 counts. The current FY turnover alone does not decide it.

• →Banks, insurers, financial institutions, and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs).
• →Goods Transport Agencies (a GTA, a road-transport operator that issues a consignment note) for their transport services.
• →Suppliers of passenger transport services.
• →Admission to the screening of films in a multiplex cinema.
• →SEZ units, as suppliers. Note the split: an SEZ unit selling out is exempt, but a supply made into an SEZ is covered.

One common mix-up: an e-invoice is not an e-way bill. The IRN proves the invoice was reported to the government; the e-way bill is a separate transport document for moving goods above a value threshold. Crossing into e-invoicing does not remove the e-way bill requirement. For the field-by-field anatomy of the tax invoice itself, see what fields a GST tax invoice must carry under Section 31 and Rule 46, and for the informal-slip trap, pakka bill vs kaccha bill.

• →Step 1, raise the invoice as usual: you keep using your own billing software. E-invoicing does not mean typing invoices into the GST portal by hand.
• →Step 2, send it to the IRP: your software uploads the invoice data to the Invoice Registration Portal (IRP), the government system that validates and registers each invoice.
• →Step 3, receive the IRN and signed QR: the IRP returns an Invoice Reference Number (IRN), a unique 64-character code, and a digitally signed QR code. Both must be printed on the invoice you hand the buyer.
• →Step 4, GSTR-1 fills itself: a registered e-invoice auto-populates your GSTR-1 (the monthly outward-supply return), so the B2B invoice details flow into the return without re-keying.