What Are the Documents Required for GST Registration in 2026?

The GST portal wording quoted on this page is taken from GSTN's own registration user guide and its Aadhaar authentication FAQs. It is manual authority rather than a live-screen capture.

FORM GST REG-01 appends a list of five document groups, and a GST officer may seek nothing outside it. The five groups are photographs of the stakeholders and the authorised signatory; proof of constitution of business; proof of principal place of business; bank account proof, where bank details are furnished; and an authorisation form for each authorised signatory. PAN, Aadhaar, Director Identification Number and Challan Identification Number are validated online by the system and are not uploads. Every requirement below is one line, naming the document, what the portal accepts in its place, and its size limit.

• PAN Card: The Permanent Account Number of the business or applicant, validated online against the CBDT database, never uploaded.
• Identity Proof of Promoters: Name, PAN, Aadhaar, DIN and date of birth are entered as form fields; no identity document is uploaded.
• Address Proof of Promoters: The residential address of each promoter, partner or director is a form entry, not an upload.
• Aadhaar Authentication: Completed by OTP for one promoter or partner and the primary authorised signatory; no Aadhaar card is uploaded.
• E-KYC Documents: Uploaded only where Aadhaar authentication is declined or fails; PDF or JPEG, maximum 2 MB.
• Photographs: Passport-sized photographs of the proprietor, partners, Karta, directors or managing trustee; PDF or JPEG, maximum 100 KB.
• Signatory Photograph: A separate passport-sized photograph of the primary authorised signatory, uploaded even where that person is also a partner.
• Proof of Constitution: The partnership deed, certificate of incorporation, or registration certificate that matches your constitution of business.
• Proof of Appointment: A letter of authorisation or board resolution in the format FORM GST REG-01 prescribes; maximum 1 MB.
• Bank Account Proof: A cancelled cheque, the first page of the passbook, or a bank statement showing name, account number, MICR, IFSC and branch.
• File Format and Size: Every upload is PDF or JPEG: photographs 100 KB, and proof of appointment, premises proof and each additional place 1 MB.

Every upload is PDF or JPEG. Photographs are capped at 100 KB; the proof of appointment, the premises proof and each additional place of business are capped at 1 MB.

The Bank Accounts tab left the new-registration application with effect from 27 December 2018 and bank details are furnished after registration, under Rule 10A.

Proof of the principal place of business is one document, chosen by how the premises are held. Owned premises need one ownership document: the latest property tax receipt, municipal khata copy, or electricity bill. Rented or leased premises need the agreement plus one such ownership document of the lessor. Premises held on consent need a consent letter or no-objection certificate from the owner. CBIC Instruction No. 03/2025-GST paragraph 6.A(iib) bars an officer from seeking the lessor's identity proof where the rent agreement is registered, and bars any further lessor document where the electricity or water connection is already in the applicant's own name.

• Owned Premises: The latest property tax receipt, municipal khata copy, or electricity bill in the applicant's name.
• Rented or Leased Premises: The rent or lease agreement plus one ownership document of the lessor: tax receipt, khata copy or electricity bill.
• Consent or Shared Premises: A consent letter or no-objection certificate from the owner, plus one ownership document in that owner's name.
• Additional Place of Business: Same possession proof as the principal place, for each premises in the State; maximum two documents, 1 MB.
• SEZ Letter of Approval: Uploaded only where SEZ Unit or SEZ Developer is chosen as the reason for registration; 1 MB.

No primary source dates the ownership document. Neither FORM GST REG-01 nor Instruction No. 03/2025-GST requires the property tax receipt, khata copy or electricity bill to be less than two months old.

The consent and shared branches, and the premises-by-premises treatment of each address a business runs, are worked out on the address-proof page, which sets out the NOC and rent agreement rules in full.

Four requirements change with the constitution of business: the proof of constitution, whose photograph is uploaded, the form the signatory's authorisation takes, and whether a Digital Signature Certificate is compulsory. A proprietorship uploads no constitution document at all. A partnership uploads the partnership deed. An LLP or a company uploads the MCA certificate of incorporation. A society, trust or association uploads its registration certificate. The list appended to FORM GST REG-01 names no memorandum or articles of association for a company; a full-text search of the notified Rules and Forms returns zero hits.

• Sole Proprietorship: The proprietor's own PAN and photograph, premises proof and bank proof; no constitution certificate exists to upload.
• Partnership Firm / LLP: The partnership deed, or the LLP's MCA certificate of incorporation, plus photographs of up to ten partners.
• Company: The MCA certificate of incorporation and a board resolution; the REG-01 list names no memorandum or articles of association.
• Hindu Undivided Family: The HUF's own PAN and the Karta's photograph and authorisation; no constitution certificate is named.
• Trust, Society or Club: The trust deed or registration certificate, the managing trustee's photograph, and a resolution of the managing committee.
• Government Department or Local Authority: A registration certificate and the photograph of the person in charge or chief executive officer.
• Foreign Company or Foreign LLP: Proof of constitution from the country of incorporation, and an authorisation naming a person resident in India.
• Digital Signature Certificate (DSC): Mandatory for companies and LLPs; every other applicant may sign with e-Signature or an Electronic Verification Code.

Item 25 of the Form adds one qualification to all of this. It is headed Document Upload and states, verbatim: “A customized list of documents required to be uploaded (refer rule 8) as per the field values in the form.” So the portal may render a constitution-proof slot the printed list does not name. A slot rendered by the portal is not a requirement written into the Form, which is why the Form does not require the memorandum and articles of association even where the portal offers somewhere to upload them. Nor is a customised slot a licence for an officer to demand a document outside the list: a query for one in FORM GST REG-03 needs Deputy or Assistant Commissioner approval under paragraph 8(vi).

A casual taxable person also creates a challan and receives a provisional GSTIN, and the acknowledgement issues only after the advance deposit of estimated tax reaches the electronic cash ledger.

Documents for Sole Proprietorship GST Registration

A sole proprietor uploads one photograph, the premises proof, and, only where another person signs, a letter of authorisation. The proprietor's own PAN is the business's PAN, so no constitution certificate exists to upload. Owned premises need one ownership document: the latest property tax receipt, municipal khata copy, or electricity bill. Rented or leased premises need the agreement plus one such ownership document of the lessor.

Documents for a Partnership Firm or LLP

A partnership firm uploads the partnership deed; an LLP uploads its MCA certificate of incorporation. Both add photographs of up to ten partners, the authorisation signed by the partners, and the premises proof, and an LLP must additionally sign with a Digital Signature Certificate. Every upload is PDF or JPEG. Photographs are capped at 100 KB; the proof of appointment, the premises proof and each additional place of business are capped at 1 MB.

Documents for a Private Limited Company

A private limited company uploads the MCA certificate of incorporation, a photograph of the managing director or authorised person, the board resolution with the signatory's acceptance, and the premises proof. The list appended to FORM GST REG-01 names no memorandum or articles of association. Owned premises need one ownership document: the latest property tax receipt, municipal khata copy, or electricity bill. Rented or leased premises need the agreement plus one such ownership document of the lessor.

Some applicants are not classified by constitution of business at all: a casual taxable person, a non-resident taxable person, a tax deductor, a tax collector and a UIN holder. The taxonomy of casual and non-resident registrations is set out on the registration types page.

The authorisation and board resolution format FORM GST REG-01 prescribes:

Declaration for Authorised Signatory (separate for each signatory)(Details of Proprietor / all Partners / Karta / Managing Directors and whole-time Director / Members of Managing Committee of Associations / Board of Trustees etc.)I/We ____________ (name), being (Partners / Karta / Managing Directors and whole-time Director / Members of Managing Committee of Associations / Board of Trustees etc.) of ____________ (name of registered person), hereby solemnly affirm and declare that ____________ (name of the authorised signatory, status/designation) is hereby authorised, vide resolution No. ____ dated ____ (copy submitted herewith), to act as an authorised signatory for the business ____________ (Goods and Services Tax Identification Number - Name of the Business) for which application for registration is being filed under the Act. All his actions in relation to this business will be binding on me/us.Signature of the person competent to signName: ____________Designation/Status: ____________(Name of the proprietor / Business Entity)Acceptance as an authorised signatoryI ____________ (name of the authorised signatory) hereby solemnly accord my acceptance to act as authorised signatory for the above referred business and all my acts shall be binding on the business.Signature of Authorised Signatory(Name): ____________Place: ____________Date: ____________Designation/Status: ____________

Two rules from the Form's own instructions govern the document. Instruction 3 requires the declaration to be signed by all partners, directors, committee members or trustees, not only by the one being authorised. Instruction 11 provides that an authorised signatory shall not be a minor.

The GST portal accepts PDF and JPEG only. Every upload is PDF or JPEG. Photographs are capped at 100 KB; the proof of appointment, the premises proof and each additional place of business are capped at 1 MB. The SEZ Letter of Approval is capped at 1 MB, and no more than two documents may be filed for one additional place. E-KYC documents, uploaded only where Aadhaar authentication is declined or fails, are capped at 2 MB. To file more than one document for a premises, GSTN's manual says to append them into a single file, choose Others from the Nature of Possession of Premises drop-down and select Legal Ownership document.

GSTN's current registration manual states no size limit for the proof of constitution of business, for the bank account proof or for a document filed with a clarification, which is why three rows in that table carry no figure. The 1 MB and 100 KB figures circulating on other sites for those three uploads come from a GSTN document checklist that has been withdrawn and now returns a 404. The four figures GSTN does publish are the ones in the rows above: 100 KB for photographs, 1 MB for the proof of appointment, the principal place of business, the SEZ approval and each additional place, and 2 MB for e-KYC documents.

The portal blocks a blank file outright. It returns The document uploaded is blank. Kindly upload the document again. and will not let the application proceed until a valid file replaces it.

For an unclear file the portal shows a soft warning offering two buttons, RETRY and CONTINUE, both in capitals: retry to upload a legible document, continue to proceed with the current one. A blank file is a hard block and an unreadable one is a dismissible warning, which means the application can go forward carrying a document nobody can read.

The maximum on an additional place of business is two documents. That cap is stated for the additional place and for nothing else, so it does not attach to the proof of appointment, the principal place of business or the SEZ approval.

Where Aadhaar authentication is declined or fails, the portal opens an e-KYC upload slot. The field label is Type of E-KYC Document, and GSTN's instruction reads: Click the Type of E-KYC Document drop-down list to select the type of document for E-KYC. The taxpayer selects any one of six values. It is a single-document choice, not a multi-select, and GSTN's order and casing are:

1. Aadhaar Enrolment Number
2. Passport
3. EPIC (Voter ID Card)
4. KYC Form
5. Certificate Issued by Competent authority
6. Others

GSTN states the format rule for this slot as File with PDF or JPEG format is only allowed. The maximum size for upload is 2 MB., and adds a naming rule: Ensure that the E-KYC documents selected for upload have your name as spelled in PAN/CBDT database. The slot covers the Primary Authorized Signatory and one selected Promoter/Partner, not everyone named on the application.

A document compressed below the cap until it is unreadable buys a FORM GST REG-03 notice under Instruction para 8(v)(a), so scan at the smallest size that stays legible rather than the smallest size that uploads.

A GST officer may seek only the documents listed in the annexure to FORM GST REG-01. CBIC Instruction No. 03/2025-GST dated 17 April 2025 names what officers had been wrongly demanding and stops it: the lessor's PAN card, the lessor's Aadhaar, and a photograph of the lessor in front of or inside the property. It also stops the Udyam certificate, the MSME certificate, the shop-establishment certificate and the trade licence being sought from a partnership. Where one ownership document has been uploaded, no second may be requested and no original physical copy may be demanded. Anything outside the list may be sought only with the approval of the Deputy or Assistant Commissioner.

Paragraph 7 of the Instruction goes further and bans three presumptive queries outright. An officer may not query that the residential address of the applicant, managing director or authorised signatory “is not in the same city or the State where the registration has been sought”. He may not query that the “HSN code of goods mentioned by the applicant in Registration application is banned or prohibited for sale in the State”. Nor may he query that “the kind of activities mentioned in the registration application can not be conducted from the particular premises”.

Where the agreement is registered, no identity proof of the lessor may be sought at all. Where it is unregistered, the lessor's identity proof may be. Where the electricity or water connection is already in the applicant tenant's own name, that document together with the rent agreement is enough, and “no additional documents pertaining to the lessor should be sought”.

The Instruction also binds the officer to timelines. Where the application is not flagged, approval runs within seven working days. Where physical verification is ordered, approval runs within thirty days of submission under the proviso to Rule 9(1), and those are calendar days. Discretionary physical verification may be ordered only by an officer not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner, under paragraph 8(iii)(c). The verification report goes in FORM GST REG-30 with a GPS-enabled site photograph, uploaded at least five working days before the thirty-day deadline expires. Rule 25(2) counts that period backwards from the thirty-day registration deadline rather than forwards from the verification visit, and it states the period in working days. A notice in FORM GST REG-03 may issue only within the same seven working days, or within thirty days in a flagged case.

When an officer deviates anyway, the Instruction is addressed to that officer's superiors and says so: “strict action may be taken against the officer deviating from these instructions”. For an application in Central jurisdiction there is also a formal grievance route. CBIC Instruction No. 04/2025-GST dated 2 May 2025 requires each CGST Zone to publicise a grievance email address to which an applicant sends the ARN, the jurisdiction and a description of the issue, addressed to the Zonal Principal Chief Commissioner or Chief Commissioner. CGST and CX Delhi Zone Trade Notice No. 01/2025 publicises a zonal grievance address and is still published on the zone's own website. Each Zone publicises its own address, and the address to use is the one that Zone currently publishes rather than one copied from a third-party page.

No bank account is needed to apply for GST registration. The Bank Accounts tab was removed from the new-registration application with effect from 27 December 2018, and no bank proof is uploaded with FORM GST REG-01. Rule 10A of the CGST Rules, 2017 requires bank account details to be furnished on the common portal within thirty days of the grant of registration, or before furnishing FORM GSTR-1 or using the invoice furnishing facility, whichever is earlier. Miss it and Rule 21A(2A)(b) suspends the registration, with an intimation in FORM GST REG-31 and thirty days to explain. Rule 21(d) makes the same failure a ground for cancellation. Rule 10A, Rule 21(d) and Rule 21A(2A)(b) work as one chain, and the GST registration rules page sets out each of them in full.

What the portal accepts is the same list the Form gives: the scanned first page of the bank passbook, or the relevant page of a bank statement, or a scanned cancelled cheque “containing name of the Proprietor or Business entity, Bank Account No., MICR, IFSC and Branch details including code”.

The details go in at Services > Registration > Amendment of Registration Non-Core Fields.

Two categories are outside Rule 10A altogether. Registrations granted under Rule 12, which covers tax deductors and tax collectors, and under Rule 16, which covers registration on the officer's own motion, are not caught by it. Instruction 16 of FORM GST REG-01 provides that a Government department applying for registration as a supplier may not furnish bank account details at all.

The account should be in the name of the registered entity, and a proprietor can usually open one on the strength of the GST certificate. That is why the rule allows thirty days after registration instead of demanding the account before the application.

The Goods and Services tab of FORM GST REG-01 takes a maximum of five HSN codes and five Service Classification Codes. Where a business deals in more than five, GSTN's manual says to enter the top five goods or services it deals in. HSN codes go in the Goods tab and Service Classification Codes in the Services tab, and the portal searches either by code or by commodity name. CBIC Instruction No. 03/2025-GST paragraph 7 bars an officer from querying that the HSN code declared is “banned or prohibited for sale in the State where the applicant wishes to conduct business”.

Enter the first four digits of a code you know and the portal adds it. Where the code is unknown, type the commodity name instead and pick from the chapter list the portal returns. A composition applicant who types a restricted HSN gets “No Results found” and has to enter a code eligible for the composition levy. The codes declared at registration are a declaration of what the business deals in rather than a rate determination, so they can be changed later by a core-field amendment.

For a known code, type 6105 and the code is added. For an unknown one, type “cotton” and pick 5208 from the chapter list. For a service, type “other building” and pick 995478.

A Facilitation Centre verifies the original copies of the documents already uploaded with FORM GST REG-01; it does not ask for new ones. The first proviso to Rule 8(4A) applies where an applicant who has opted for Aadhaar authentication is identified on the common portal on data analysis and risk parameters: biometric Aadhaar authentication, a photograph, and verification of those originals. An applicant who did not opt for Aadhaar falls under the second proviso, in force since 11 February 2025: photograph and original-document verification, but no biometrics. Miss the fifteen-day window on either branch and no ARN is generated at all.

Take to the Suvidha Kendra the printed originals of every document scanned into the application, in the same order, plus the appointment letter or board resolution in original.

The selection criteria are not published. “Data analysis and risk parameters” is the whole of the statutory test, and any page listing the reasons an application gets flagged is speculating.

The fifteen-day rule works differently on each branch.

Under the first proviso, the application is “deemed to be complete only after completion of the process laid down under this proviso”. Under the second, it is complete “only after successful verification as laid down under this proviso”. Neither branch produces a complete application until its extra step is done. The rest of it, including who must authenticate for each constitution of business, is on the Aadhaar authentication page.

An illegible or incomplete document is a lawful ground for a notice in FORM GST REG-03. CBIC Instruction No. 03/2025-GST paragraph 8(v) allows an officer only four grounds: a document that is incomplete or not legible; an address that does not match the document uploaded; an address that is incomplete or vague; and a GSTIN on the same PAN that is cancelled or suspended. Queries may not be raised for minor deficiencies. Reply in FORM GST REG-04 within seven working days of the notice, and the officer must approve within seven working days of a satisfactory reply or reject in FORM GST REG-05.

• Document incomplete or not legible: the uploaded file is cut off, unreadable, or missing pages the document needs to make sense.
• Address does not match: the address entered in the application differs from the address on the document uploaded, or the document is not valid proof of it.
• Address incomplete or vague: the address is not specific enough to identify the premises.
• GSTIN on the same PAN cancelled or suspended: another registration on the applicant's PAN stands cancelled or suspended.

The portal blocks a blank upload outright and warns on an unclear one, both before an officer sees the file at all, on the upload limits set out above.

Where no reply is furnished within seven working days of the notice, the officer may reject in FORM GST REG-05 within seven working days of the expiry of that period. A clarification is filed with its supporting documents in PDF or JPEG. No size cap is stated for that upload either: GSTN's live manual gives none, and the 1 MB figure quoted elsewhere comes from the withdrawn checklist. Drafting the reply itself, ground by ground, is covered on the Form GST REG-03 page.

The checklist below reproduces all twenty-three requirements on one page, with the accepted format and the size limit against each. Work down it as you scan, ticking each line, and keep the scans in a single folder named by document rather than by date. GSTN's own document checklist PDF at tutorial.gst.gov.in returned HTTP 404 when checked on 24 August 2026, so every format and size figure here is taken from GSTN's live registration user guide instead.

Block 1. The twenty-three requirements, with format and size.

Seven cells in that table read the same way, and they are the same finding stated once per row: GSTN's live registration manual states no size limit for the proof of constitution of business, whichever entity uploads it, or for the bank account proof.

Block 2. The four columns that change with your constitution of business.

The Aadhaar and Suvidha Kendra columns are in the full matrix, in the entity-specific section above.

Block 3. The documents an officer cannot demand. All six are removed by CBIC Instruction No. 03/2025-GST dated 17 April 2025.

• The lessor's PAN card
• The lessor's Aadhaar
• A photograph of the lessor in front of or inside the property
• A second ownership document once one is uploaded
• Original physical copies of an ownership document
• A Udyam, MSME, shop-establishment certificate or trade licence from a partnership