Anomaly check
Time-barred ITC under Section 16(4)
A valid invoice, a genuine supply, a real credit — and no longer available, because the availment window closed.
Sec. 16(4), CGST Act 2017
Law current as of 21 September 2026
The deadline
- Credit on an invoice or debit note cannot be availed after 30 November following the end of the financial year to which it relates, or the date of filing the annual return for that year, whichever is earlier.
- It applies regardless of fault. A supplier who reports late, an invoice that surfaces during an audit, a credit held back pending a dispute — all lose the credit the same way.
Where expiring credit hides
- Invoices held back because the supplier had not reported them, then forgotten.
- Documents booked in a later year by the accountant but dated in the earlier one.
- Credit deliberately parked pending a commercial dispute over the supply.
- Import documents and reverse-charge entries reconciled separately from the main register.
What to do
- Run the check before each November deadline, not after, and take the credit while it is still available.
- Where the window has closed, do not avail it — write it off in the books and take up recovery with the supplier commercially if they caused the delay.
- Keep the working, because a disallowed claim in this category is easy for the department to spot and hard to argue.
Test this on a real register
Upload a sales or purchase file in the free simulator — no sign-up — and see every finding with the clause it breaches and the rupee impact. In the signed-in workspace, firm owners and admins can reconcile the books and use the approved figures to prepare and file GSTR-1 or GSTR-3B by EVC.