Tax invoice format under GST

Who issues a tax invoice and when

Every registered person making a taxable supply issues a tax invoice. Composition dealers and businesses selling only exempt goods or services issue a bill of supply instead. The law on contents sits in section 31 of the CGST Act and Rule 46 of the CGST Rules.

Timing matters as much as format:

• Goods: at or before removal of goods for delivery, or at delivery where there is no movement.
• Services: generally within 30 days of supplying the service.
• Continuous supplies (rent, maintenance contracts): on or before the payment due date fixed in the contract.

This is general information, not tax advice. Confirm current rules on cbic-gst.gov.in.

The mandatory fields, with a sample

Here is how the fields look on a typical B2B invoice from a Jaipur distributor to a buyer in the same state.

Below the table come the invoice total in figures and words, and the signature or digital signature of the supplier or an authorised person. The tax rate above is only for illustration; always use the rate notified for your item.

Fields people forget

• Place of supply with state name on inter-state sales. It decides whether you charge IGST or CGST plus SGST. See place of supply for goods.
• Delivery address when goods go somewhere other than the billing address.
• Unregistered buyers: for a supply of ₹50,000 or more, the buyer's name, address and delivery address with state name and code must appear even though there is no GSTIN.
• HSN digits: 4 or 6 digits depending on your aggregate turnover for the previous year. The threshold is set by notification, so check the current one.
• Reverse charge line, even when the answer is No.
• Discount shown before tax, so the taxable value is clear.

How many copies, and what changes with e-invoicing

For goods, make the invoice in triplicate: the original for the buyer, the duplicate for the transporter and the triplicate for you. For services, two copies are enough: original for the buyer and duplicate for you. Mark each copy so nobody mixes them up.

If your aggregate turnover crosses the e-invoicing threshold (₹5 crore at the time of writing), B2B invoices must be reported to the Invoice Registration Portal, which returns an IRN and a signed QR code to print on the invoice. The fields stay the same; the reporting step is extra. Read e-invoicing and IRN for the workflow. Very large businesses also print a dynamic QR code on B2C invoices.

A worked example: inter-state sale

The same distributor sells 100 ceiling fans to a dealer in Indore.

Place of supply is Madhya Pradesh (23), so the invoice shows IGST, not CGST and SGST. If the buyer gets this wrong in their books, their credit does not match GSTR-2B, so a clean invoice saves both of you a phone call.

Checklist before you print

1. GSTIN of both parties matches the registration (state code first two digits).
2. Number is from the current financial year's series and not used before.
3. Place of supply decides the tax type; no CGST/SGST on an inter-state bill.
4. HSN or SAC is present for every line.
5. Taxable value, tax amount and total add up; round-off is shown separately.
6. Signature, digital signature or a valid electronic invoice.
7. Bank details and payment terms printed, so the buyer knows how and when to pay.

Doing this with Tally and Cashflow OS

In TallyPrime the sales voucher is the tax invoice, and its print carries the GST fields from your company and party masters. With Cashflow OS, an owner or salesperson can create that sales voucher from the phone or the web app once write-back is switched on. GST is worked out from the item and the party's state, and Tally validates the entry; if Tally refuses it, the reason comes back to the app. On plans that include them, e-invoices (IRN) and e-way bills can be generated from Cashflow OS for the synced Tally invoice; otherwise keep your existing process.