A S BANKA ADVISORS

There is a number sitting on your GST dashboard that most founders have never deliberately looked at, and it quietly decides four separate compliance obligations. It is your Annual Aggregate Turnover, and for FY 2025-26 you can only correct it yourself until 31 July 2026.

What GSTN changed

GSTN Advisory No. 666, issued on 1 July 2026, moved the AATO amendment facility out of its traditional May slot. For FY 2025-26 the self-amendment window runs from 1 July to 31 July 2026, and jurisdictional officers review the amended figures between 1 and 15 August 2026. Under the earlier advisory dated 2 May 2022, this correction happened in May, for financial years up to FY 2024-25.

The second change matters more in the long run. From 1 July 2026 the AATO module has been upgraded to update automatically as subsequent returns are filed after the window closes. Your turnover figure is no longer a static value waiting for the next manual correction cycle. It now inherits whatever your GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B filings say.

Why this single number is worth your attention

AATO is not cosmetic. It is the field the portal reads to enforce:

• E-invoicing. Mandatory once AATO crosses Rs 5 crore in any financial year from 2017-18 onward, per Notification 10/2023-Central Tax dated 10 May 2023, effective 1 August 2023. Once you are in, falling below the threshold later does not take you out.
• The 30-day IRP reporting limit. Applies at AATO of Rs 10 crore and above, effective 1 April 2025. Report an invoice later than that and the portal will not accept it.
• GSTR-9C. A self-certified reconciliation statement is required where AATO exceeds Rs 5 crore, under Rule 80(3) of the CGST Rules.
• QRMP. Quarterly return with monthly payment is available only up to Rs 5 crore of aggregate turnover in the preceding financial year, under Rule 61A.

Where the number goes wrong

AATO is computed on an all-India PAN basis, aggregating taxable supplies, exempt supplies, exports and inter-state supplies between distinct persons under the same PAN. If you run three state registrations, you see the combined figure, not the state one. Export-heavy and exempt-income-heavy businesses therefore cross thresholds earlier than their promoters expect.

An overstated figure is expensive in the wrong direction. It pulls you into e-invoicing and a GSTR-9C reconciliation you do not owe, forces early ERP and invoicing changes, and can cost you QRMP eligibility, converting quarterly compliance into monthly.

An understated figure is worse. If you are legally covered by e-invoicing and do not comply, a B2B invoice issued without a valid IRN is not a valid tax invoice, and your buyer loses the input tax credit. Your portal error becomes your customer’s commercial problem, and when the department reconciles it later, the gap reads as suppression rather than as a data issue.

What this means for your startup

If FY 2025-26 was the year you crossed Rs 5 crore, or your first year of meaningful export revenue, this is not a housekeeping task. Do four things:

1. Read the displayed FY 2025-26 AATO on the GST Portal today.
2. Reconcile it against filed GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B for every GSTIN on the PAN, including exempt, export and inter-state supplies.
3. If the figure is wrong, file the amendment application on or before 31 July 2026, and review the details carefully before you submit.
4. Track the officer review between 1 and 15 August 2026, and raise any grievance through the Self-Service Portal on the GST Portal.

After 31 July, self-correction for FY 2025-26 is no longer available. The auto-update feature will keep the figure current going forward, but it will not retrospectively repair a wrong base. That makes the accuracy of your ongoing returns a compliance-threshold question, not merely a filing question.

For CA practitioners, the practical move today is to run this check across the client book PAN by PAN rather than GSTIN by GSTIN, and to record the amendment application reference for every client sitting near Rs 5 crore or Rs 10 crore.

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Getting the threshold call wrong on either side is costly. If you want a second pair of eyes on your AATO position before the window shuts, let’s discuss your situation. Book a quick call: https://calendly.com/asbanka-info/30min

CA Adityavikram Banka, Founder, A S Banka Advisors Private Limited.