The GSTR-7 and GSTR-8 due date for August 2026 is 10 September 2026, a Thursday — two days after this reminder. These are the two GST returns most businesses never file themselves: GSTR-7 covers tax deducted at source under GST, and GSTR-8 covers tax collected at source by e-commerce operators. Yet the date lands on far more businesses than the handful who file them, because it decides something that belongs to you — whether tax that was already deducted from your invoice, or collected on your online sales, actually reaches your ledger as credit you can use.
What the GSTR-7 and GSTR-8 due date for August 2026 actually covers
Both returns share the same deadline — the GST portal sets each due date as the “10th day of the succeeding month,” so for the August 2026 tax period both fall on 10 September 2026. They differ in who files and what they report. GSTR-7, in the portal’s words, is “a return which is required to be filed by the persons who deduct tax at the time of making/crediting payment to suppliers towards the inward supplies received.” The people who must file it are defined narrowly: a department or establishment of the Central or State Government, a local authority, Governmental agencies, and persons the Government notifies on the Council’s recommendations. GSTR-8 is different — it is “a Statement of TCS (Tax Collected at Source) to be filed by E-Commerce Operators,” required from “every E-commerce Operator who are registered under GST laws and required to collect TCS on outward supplies of goods and/ or services effected through the e-commerce Portal / platform.”
Neither return is filed by the ordinary supplier or the online seller. But both decide whether the tax already taken out of your money comes back to you as credit — which is why the 10th matters even when you are not the one filing.
If you supply to a deductor, GSTR-7 is what releases your money
When a government body or notified entity pays you, it does not always hand over the full invoice value. It deducts tax at source under GST and pays that portion to the government on your behalf. That deducted amount is yours — but you cannot touch it until the deductor files GSTR-7. The portal is explicit: “TDS credit will be available to the counter party taxpayer (supplier) upon filing of TDS return in Form GSTR-7 by the Deductor.” Until the return is filed, the credit simply is not there for you to claim.
There is a second step that businesses often miss. Filing by the deductor makes the credit available; you still have to accept it. In the portal’s words, the “TDS amount will be credited to deductee’s Electronic Cash Ledger only after his/her accepting of TDS and TCS credit received … and filing of this relevant form.” Once accepted, it sits in your electronic cash ledger and can be used to pay your own GST. So the 10th is only half the story — log in after it, check that the deductor has filed, and accept the credit so it reaches your ledger.
If you sell on e-commerce platforms, the operator’s GSTR-8 decides your TCS credit
Sell through an online marketplace and the operator collects a slice of tax on your net supplies before it settles your payout — tax collected at source. The operator, not you, reports it, in GSTR-8, by the same 10 September date. What the operator files then flows to you: the portal notes that the details an operator reports “are sent to the counter-party for action,” the counter-party being the seller whose supplies were taxed. As with TDS, the collected amount reaches your electronic cash ledger through the same route — the “TDS and TCS credit received” acceptance the portal describes — once you accept it.
The practical risk here is not the filing; it is the reconciliation. The TCS figure the operator reports is built from the operator’s record of your sales, which may not match your own books line for line — returns, cancellations and timing differences all move the number. Treat the operator’s statement the way you would any credit statement: match it against your own sales records before you accept, so the credit you take is the credit you can actually stand behind.
| GSTR-7 | GSTR-8 | |
|---|---|---|
| What it reports | Tax deducted at source (TDS) under GST | Tax collected at source (TCS) on online sales |
| Who files it | Government departments, local authorities, agencies and notified deductors | Every registered e-commerce operator collecting TCS |
| Whose credit it releases | The supplier who was paid after deduction | The seller whose online supplies were taxed |
| Due date (August 2026) | 10 September 2026 | 10 September 2026 |
What to do before — and just after — 10 September
Which side of this you sit on decides the action. If your business is a deductor — a government-linked body, or a person the Government has notified — file GSTR-7 for August by the 10th, because a late or missed filing does not just cost you; it holds up every supplier waiting on that credit. If you are an e-commerce operator, file GSTR-8 by the same date. And if you are on the receiving end — a supplier paid after deduction, or a seller on a marketplace — your job comes just after the 10th: log in to the portal, confirm the deductor or operator has filed, and accept the credit through “TDS and TCS credit received” so it lands in your electronic cash ledger. Reconcile what you accept against your own records first; an unmatched figure accepted in haste is harder to unwind than a credit claimed a month late.
When is the GSTR-7 and GSTR-8 due date for August 2026?
Both returns are due on 10 September 2026 for the August tax period. The GST portal sets each due date as the 10th day of the succeeding month, so GSTR-7 (TDS) and GSTR-8 (TCS) for August both fall on 10 September, a Thursday.
Who actually has to file GSTR-7 and GSTR-8?
GSTR-7 is filed by persons who deduct TDS under GST — departments or establishments of the Central or State Government, local authorities, Governmental agencies, and persons the Government notifies. GSTR-8 is filed by every e-commerce operator registered under GST that collects TCS on supplies made through its platform.
I’m a supplier or an online seller — do I file these returns?
No. GSTR-7 is filed by the deductor and GSTR-8 by the e-commerce operator, not by the supplier or seller. Your action is on the other side: after the return is filed, log in and accept the credit through “TDS and TCS credit received” so the deducted or collected tax reaches your electronic cash ledger.
How does the deducted or collected tax reach me as credit?
The portal says TDS credit becomes available to the supplier once the deductor files GSTR-7, and the amount is credited to the deductee’s electronic cash ledger only after the supplier accepts it and files the relevant form. E-commerce TCS reaches the seller through the same acceptance route once the operator has filed GSTR-8. Reconcile the figure against your own records before you accept it.