GSTR-6 and GSTR-6A: The Tables, and the Place-of-Supply Trap

GSTR explained: this guide covers what it means, who it applies to, the step-by-step process, documents required, fees, due dates and penalties in India — so you can stay compliant with confidence and avoid costly mistakes.

GSTR-6 is a small return with one large hazard. An invoice whose place of supply is outside the ISD's own State is silently excluded from the credit available for distribution — no error, no warning, just a smaller number in Table 4 than the ISD expected.

Every ISD must file FORM GSTR-6 for each calendar month within 13 days after the month end, and a Nil return is mandatory where there is nothing to distribute. Supplier details arrive in FORM GSTR-6A, auto-drafted from the suppliers' GSTR-1, GSTR-1A or IFF. Table 4's "ITC available for distribution" excludes any invoice whose place of supply differs from the State in which the ISD is registered. Late fee is ₹25 CGST + ₹25 SGST per day under Notification No. 07/2018-Central Tax dated 23.01.2018. Credit distributed through GSTR-6 bypasses the IMS and flows directly to the recipient's GSTR-2B.

GSTR-6A: what the suppliers said

The details of outward supplies furnished by suppliers in GSTR-1, GSTR-1A or the IFF are made available electronically to the ISD in FORM GSTR-6A.

The ISD's job is verification. "ISD is required to verify that all the invoices on which ITC is to be claimed are reported by its suppliers correctly or not."

The portal lets you drill down — invoices are shown by category, then by supplier GSTIN, then by invoice number, with the taxable amount and the taxes levied.

But note what GSTR-6 does not do: it does not auto-populate from GSTR-6A. "ISD need to manually enter the details of the invoices, debit or credit notes received by ISD for the services supplied or provided for other distinct persons from the suppliers as per ISD records and documents." GSTR-6A is the cross-check; the ISD's own records are the source.

The tables

Part A — documents for credit received:

Part B — distribution:

Table 7 is dormant. The Handbook notes that the instructions say Table 7 (Mismatch ITC and Reclaim) will be auto-populated by the system, "however it is not active on the GST Portal till the time of going to press."

For amendments in Tables 6A and 6C, the ISD enters the supplier's GSTIN and the original invoice or note number, and the previously reported details are displayed for modification.

The place-of-supply trap

This is the single most consequential note in the chapter, and it is easy to read past:

"While filling up the invoices, if the place of supply (PoS) given by the Supplier is different from the State where ISD is registered, ITC in such invoices is not considered by the Portal while calculating total ITC available for distribution in Table 4. Hence, it can be said that ITC for distribution shall be available only against such inward supplies where PoS is same as the State where ISD is registered."

And repeated in the Table 4 notes: "Total ITC available for distribution displayed at (a) will not include ITC where place of supply (POS) is different from the State in which ISD has taken registration."

Why this matters commercially. Many services carry a place of supply determined by something other than the recipient's location — services in relation to immovable property, admission to events, performance-based services. Where a vendor bills the ISD but the place of supply is another State, the invoice enters Table 3 but never reaches Table 4, and the credit cannot be distributed at all.

Two practical responses. First, check the vendor's place of supply before directing the invoice to the ISD — an event-management or property-related service may belong on the branch's own registration. Second, reconcile Table 3 to Table 4 every month; an unexplained gap is almost always a place-of-supply exclusion.

A related mechanic: for each invoice and note, the place of supply must be selected, and "GST Portal would determine supply type i.e. whether it is an Inter-State or Intra-State transaction based on the State/UT where supplier is registered and State that has been selected in POS field."

Filing, and the equality rule

The Handbook's filing sequence:

• Click CALCULATE ITC under Table 4, verify Tables 4 and 9, then Proceed to File — on processing without errors the status shows "Ready to File".
• Review the CONSOLIDATED SUMMARY, then PROCEED.
• The Payment of Late Fees page appears; the cash ledger balance, late fee payable and paid are shown, with a Create Challan option if the balance is short.
• PREVIEW DRAFT GSTR-6 to download the summary, then FILE RETURN, then FILE WITH DSC or FILE WITH EVC.
• Status changes to Filed; an ARN is generated and email and SMS go to the authorised signatory.

And the arithmetic that must hold: "the total ITC available for distribution and total ITC distributed should be equal in each month." Amounts of eligible and ineligible ITC in Table 4 are auto-populated from Tables 5 and 8 and cannot exceed the ITC available for distribution.

Remember that the heads will not tally even when the totals do — central and State tax convert to integrated tax for out-of-State recipients. Tax head conversion →

Table 9: fixing a wrong distribution

Table 9 "provides for rectification of the mistake done in earlier months in distributing the ITC to wrong recipient or wrong type i.e. eligible or ineligible", by selecting and modifying the earlier ISD invoice.

But there is a hard limit: "The tax amounts cannot be modified through this Table. ISD needs to use debit or credit note if any correction is required to be done in tax amounts."

So the repair route depends on what is wrong. A misclassification between eligible and ineligible, or a wrong recipient with the same amount, is a Table 9 amendment. A change in amount requires an ISD credit note to the over-credited branch and an ISD invoice or debit note to the under-credited one, both uploaded in Tables 5 and 8.

Due date, late fee, and the Nil return

• Due date: the 13th of the month following the tax period.
• Late fee: ₹25 CGST + ₹25 SGST per day, under Notification No. 07/2018-Central Tax dated 23.01.2018 — the Handbook states it as ₹50 per day in total.
• A Nil return is mandatory: "A 'Nil' return must be filed in case of no ITC is being available for distribution or no ITC is being distributed during the month."
• An offline tool for GSTR-6 is available.

One document-dating restriction worth knowing: invoices, debit notes and credit notes cannot be dated after the supplier's registration was cancelled, nor after the ISD's own registration was cancelled — they must fall between the grant of registration and its effective cancellation. The same applies in the amendment tables.

After filing: where the credit goes

To the branch's GSTR-2A Part B. "On successful submission of GSTR-6 by ISD, the details of invoices furnished by an ISD in his return in FORM GSTR-6 will be available to the distinct person (recipient) in Part B of FORM GSTR-2A."

And it bypasses the Invoice Management System. Per the GSTN FAQs dated 22.09.2024, records flowing from GSTR-5 and GSTR-6, ICEGATE and RCM records, documents where ITC is ineligible due to place-of-supply rules or section 16(4), and documents attracting rule 37A reversal are not part of IMS but flow directly to GSTR-2B. "any ITC distributed by ISD through GSTR-6 will not be a part of IMS and instead it will directly flow to the recipient's GSTR-2B."

So a branch cannot accept, reject or keep pending an ISD credit. It arrives, and the branch must then reverse whatever is ineligible in its own return.

Key takeaways

• GSTR-6 by the 13th, monthly, Nil return mandatory; late fee ₹50 a day (₹25 + ₹25).
• GSTR-6A is the auto-drafted cross-check; Table 3 entries are made manually from the ISD's own records.
• Table 4 excludes any invoice whose place of supply is not the ISD's State — reconcile Table 3 to Table 4 monthly.
• Table 4 is auto-populated from Tables 5 and 8, and distribution cannot exceed what is available.
• Total in must equal total out, though the heads will differ.
• Table 9 cannot change tax amounts — use an ISD credit note and an ISD invoice or debit note instead.
• Documents cannot be dated outside the period of the supplier's or the ISD's registration.
• ISD credit bypasses IMS and flows straight to the recipient's GSTR-2B (and GSTR-2A Part B).

Read next

• Eligible and Ineligible ITC: Why an ISD Distributes Both
• How an ISD Converts Tax Heads: IGST, CGST, SGST and UTGST
• Section 21: Excess Distribution, Recovery and the Two Penalties

Disclaimer: Positions stated as on 5 September 2026, based on rules 39, 54, 60 and 65 of the CGST Rules, 2017, FORM GSTR-6 and GSTR-6A, Notification No. 07/2018-Central Tax dated 23 January 2018 and the GSTN FAQs dated 22 September 2024 on the Invoice Management System, as reproduced in the ICAI Handbook on Input Service Distributor under GST (2nd edition, September 2025).