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Credit Note and Debit Note Under GST: When and How to Issue

Returned goods, price changes or a wrong rate? You cannot edit a filed invoice — you issue a note. Here are the rules.

18 April 2026 5 min readBy SmartGST Team
Credit Note and Debit Note Under GST: When and How to Issue

Credit note

Issued by the supplier when taxable value or tax charged exceeds what was due — sales returns, post-sale discounts, deficiency in service. It reduces your output tax.

Debit note

Issued when the original invoice undercharged value or tax. It increases output tax and can be issued any time.

Time limit for credit notes

Must be declared in returns by 30 November following the financial year of the original invoice.

Contents

Same fields as a tax invoice plus the original invoice number and date, and the words 'Credit Note' or 'Debit Note'.

Reporting

Report in Table 9B of GSTR-1. Keep a separate number series so the audit trail is clear.

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Keywords: credit note gst · debit note gst rules. This article is general information, not professional tax advice.