GST registration is not national. A GSTIN starts with a two-digit State code followed by your PAN, and it covers one State or Union territory. You need a separate registration in each State from which you make supplies. Selling into a State is a different matter. A business that only bills or ships to customers in other States, with no place of business there, normally stays on its home-State GSTIN and charges integrated tax on those sales.
So the question to ask about each State is not “do I have customers there?” but “do I have a place of business there?”
The rule in the Act
Three provisions decide it:
- Section 22(1) makes a supplier liable to register in the State or Union territory “from where he makes a taxable supply”.
- Section 25(1) requires the application in every such State, within 30 days of becoming liable.
- Section 25(4) treats each registration as a distinct person, even though the PAN is the same. Section 25(5) says the same of establishments in different States.
The turnover limit for registration is still tested on aggregate turnover across all States under the same PAN. Once that is crossed, or a compulsory-registration case applies, you register in each State you supply from. If you are setting up a second registration, our GST registration service handles the application in the new State.
When a second State needs its own GSTIN
The test is whether you have a place of business in that State. Section 2(85) defines “place of business” widely. It includes:
- a place from which the business is ordinarily carried on;
- a warehouse, godown or any other place where you store goods;
- a place where you supply or receive goods or services;
- a place where you keep your books of account;
- a place where you do business through an agent, by whatever name called.
| Situation | Separate GSTIN in the other State? |
|---|---|
| A Pune consultant bills a client in Delhi and works remotely | No. It is an inter-State supply from Maharashtra on the Maharashtra GSTIN. |
| A Jaipur manufacturer ships goods to buyers in five States from its Jaipur factory | No. Each sale is an inter-State supply from Rajasthan. |
| The same manufacturer rents a godown in Gujarat and supplies Gujarat buyers from it | Yes. The godown is a place of business in Gujarat. |
| An online seller’s stock sits in a marketplace’s fulfilment centre in Karnataka | Usually yes. Goods stored there make it a place of business, even though the warehouse belongs to the marketplace. |
| A company opens a branch office in Hyderabad with staff serving local clients | Yes, in Telangana. |
| A trader takes a stall at a three-day exhibition in Kochi, with no fixed place in Kerala | Registration as a casual taxable person in Kerala, applied for at least five days before the event (sections 2(20) and 25(1)). |
An employee who works from home in another State does not, by that alone, make the home a place of business. It can become one if stock is kept there, books are maintained there, or the business is ordinarily carried on from it. Look at what actually happens at the address.
Additional place of business, or a separate registration?
These are different routes, and people mix them up.
- A new place in the same State, such as a second shop or a godown in another city of the same State, is normally added to your existing registration as an additional place of business. The certificate shows the principal place and the additional places together (rule 10). This is an amendment to the existing GSTIN, not a new registration.
- A place in another State cannot be added that way. It needs a fresh application in that State and gets its own GSTIN.
Several registrations inside one State
Section 25(2) gives one registration per State as the default, but its proviso lets a person with multiple places of business in a State take a separate registration for each. Rule 11 sets three conditions:
- you have more than one place of business, as defined in section 2(85);
- you cannot pay composition tax at one place while paying normal tax at another; if one separately registered place becomes ineligible for composition, all of them do;
- each separately registered place must charge tax on supplies to your other registered places, with a tax invoice or bill of supply.
Businesses choose this when units run separate books, for example a factory and a retail chain in the same State. The cost is that transfers between them become taxable supplies with full paperwork. One case is compulsory, not optional: a unit in a Special Economic Zone needs its own registration, separate from the business’s other places in the same State (section 25(1), second proviso).
Composition has a PAN-wide rule too. Under section 10, where several registrations share a PAN, none of them can opt for composition unless all of them do.
What “distinct persons” means in practice
Each GSTIN is, for GST, a separate taxpayer that happens to share your PAN. That has three consequences.
Transfers between your own branches are supplies
Section 7(1)(c) brings the activities in Schedule I within “supply” even without consideration. Supplies between distinct persons in the course of business are one of them. Sending stock from your Rajasthan factory to your Gujarat godown is an inter-State supply. It needs a tax invoice, integrated tax and, where the rules require one, an e-way bill. The Gujarat registration then takes credit for that tax.
Head-office services to branches can be cross-charged
Where a head office in one State provides services to branches in other States, such as management, accounts or IT, GST treats those as supplies between distinct persons too. How they are valued, and when an invoice value is accepted, is governed by the valuation rules and CBIC clarifications. Settle the approach with your tax adviser before the first year-end, not during an audit.
Common third-party services go through an ISD
Many bills for services used by all branches arrive at the head office: audit fees, software subscriptions, advertising. Since 1 April 2025, section 20 requires an office that receives such invoices on behalf of distinct persons to register as an Input Service Distributor and pass the credit on to the branches. The ISD is a separate registration, applied for separately (rule 8(1), proviso). Without one, the credit stays stuck at the GSTIN that received the bill.
What every extra GSTIN adds to your workload
- Returns per GSTIN. Each registration files its own periodic returns and, where applicable, its own annual return. A dormant branch registration still files nil returns. Our page on GST return filing covers that cycle.
- Separate credit ledgers. Input tax credit sits with the GSTIN that claimed it. It cannot be moved to another State’s registration by a journal entry. It moves only through a tax invoice between branches or through the ISD.
- Separate invoicing. Each registration needs its own invoice series, and its sales must carry the correct GSTIN as supplier.
- Separate officers and notices. Each registration is administered by the tax authority of its own State. Each can face its own verification, notices and assessments.
- Reconciliation. Branch-to-branch invoices must match on both sides: outward in one State, inward in the other.
This is why the decision is worth taking deliberately. Storing your goods in another State, even in someone else’s warehouse, brings a whole registration’s compliance with it. If the stock can be shipped from your home State instead, you may not need one. Where the business needs a presence in that State, register before supplies start from there. The 30-day window runs from the date you become liable.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use one GSTIN for the whole country?
No. A GSTIN is tied to a State. A business with places of business in three States has three registrations.
Does each State registration need its own turnover limit?
No. Liability is tested on aggregate turnover under the PAN across India. Once liable, you register in each State from which you supply.
Do I need a GSTIN in a State where I only have customers?
Not if you have no place of business there. You supply from your own State and charge integrated tax.
Is the ISD registration optional?
Not since 1 April 2025, if one office receives invoices for input services used by distinct persons, meaning your registrations in other States.
Complianto (complianto.in), operated by Mentorcorp Private Limited, is a private consultancy and is not affiliated with any government body. We do not issue official documents. We charge a professional fee for application assistance and advisory services. Applicants can apply directly to the government without our fees via the official portals: MCA (mca.gov.in), Income Tax (incometax.gov.in), GST (gst.gov.in), MSME (udyamregistration.gov.in), FSSAI (foscos.fssai.gov.in), Startup India (startupindia.gov.in), and IP India (ipindia.gov.in).
This article is general information, not legal or tax advice.
