GST registration is the process by which a person or business is entered into the GST system and issued a GSTIN. Everything you see in a GST lookup — legal name, taxpayer type, constitution, jurisdiction, registration date — comes from that registration record.
Who registers
Registration is driven mainly by turnover thresholds, but several categories must register regardless of turnover. Broadly:
- Businesses whose aggregate turnover crosses the applicable threshold. The threshold differs for goods and services, and some states apply a lower figure.
- Persons making inter-state taxable supplies, in many cases.
- Casual taxable persons and non-resident taxable persons.
- Persons required to pay tax under reverse charge.
- E-commerce operators, and many suppliers selling through them.
- Input service distributors, and persons required to deduct or collect tax at source.
Anyone below the threshold may also register voluntarily, and many do, because registered buyers often prefer registered suppliers.
Because thresholds and category rules are revised from time to time, treat the list above as orientation and confirm current requirements against official sources before acting on them.
Registration is state-wise
This is the single most misunderstood point. GST registration is granted for a state or union territory, not for the country. A business with a place of business in three states registers three times and receives three GSTINs.
That is why the first two digits of a GSTIN are a state code, and why "is this company GST registered?" is an incomplete question. The precise question is: is this company registered in the state it is supplying from?
What the registration record contains
Once approved, the registration holds a defined set of fields. These are the fields a lookup can return:
- GSTIN — the identifier itself.
- Legal name — the name as recorded against the PAN.
- Trade name — the operating or brand name, where one was declared. It is often blank.
- Status — Active, Cancelled, Suspended or another state defined by the system.
- Taxpayer type — Regular, Composition, Casual Taxable Person, Non-Resident, Input Service Distributor, SEZ unit or developer, TDS or TCS deductor, and others.
- Constitution of business — proprietorship, partnership, LLP, private limited company, public limited company, HUF, society or trust, government department, and so on.
- Date of registration — when the registration took effect.
- Jurisdiction — the centre and state offices that administer this registration.
- State — derived from the state code.
- Principal place of business — the main declared address, where available.
- Nature of business activities — for example retail, wholesale, manufacturing, service provision.
Not every field is populated for every registration, and some lookups return fewer fields than others. A field that is genuinely absent should be shown as blank or as a dash, never filled in with a plausible guess.
Composition scheme registrations
Composition taxpayers pay tax at a flat rate on turnover and cannot charge GST on their invoices in the ordinary way or pass on input tax credit. If a lookup shows the taxpayer type as Composition and the supplier has nonetheless charged you GST as a regular taxpayer would, that is a genuine discrepancy worth raising before you pay.
Why the registration date matters
The date of registration tells you from when the registration was effective. If an invoice is dated before that, the supplier was not registered when they issued it, and any GST shown on that invoice is questionable. This is a simple check that catches real problems.
How to see a registration record
Enter the 15-character GSTIN in GST number search. The result shows the fields that were returned for that registration, along with when we last checked. Re-check refreshes it.
Where to go next
- Read what is a GSTIN.
- Read how to check GST registration status.
- Read GSTIN details for a field-by-field explanation.
- Verify a number with GST verification.
For registration procedure, thresholds and filing obligations, the official GST portal and CBIC are the authoritative sources.