Invoicing in GST Regime

Invoicing is a crucial aspect of indirect tax compliance. In the GST regime, two types of invoices will be issued: Tax invoice and Bill of supply.
Since we are discussing invoices to be issued as per Law, below article only focuses on tax invoices.

1. Taxable Invoice

It is issued by a registered taxable person when he supplies taxable goods or services.
(Based on the rules regarding details required in a tax invoice, a sample tax invoice has been shown below.)

Time limit for issue of tax invoice

In case of Supply of Goods The tax invoice must be issued before or at the time of Removal of goods, where supply involves movement of goods
(E.g. – When ABC Cars Ltd, a car manufacturer, supplies cars to its dealer XYZ Automobiles, the invoice must be issued at the time of removal of the cars from ABC Cars Ltd’s premises. This is because the supply involves movement of the cars to XYZ Automobiles’ premises.)
OR
Delivery of goods to the recipient, where supply does not require movement of goods
(E.g. – ABC Cars Ltd purchases a generator set, which will be assembled and installed at the factory premises by the supplier. Here, since the supply does not require movement of the generator set, the invoice must be issued at the time when the generator set is made available to ABC Cars Ltd.)

In a case of Supply of services, the tax invoice must be issued within 30 days from the date of supply of the service. Where the supplier is a bank or any financial institution, the invoice must be issued within 45 days of the supply of service.

In a case of a person paying tax on reverse charge receives goods or services from an unregistered supplier, the receiver must issue an invoice on the date of receipt of goods or services.

Copy of Tax Invoice

For a supply of goods, three copies of the invoice are required – Original, Duplicate, and Triplicate.

1. Original invoice: The original invoice is issued to the receiver, and is marked as ‘Original for recipient’.
2. Duplicate copy: The duplicate copy is issued to the transporter, and is marked as ‘Duplicate for transporter’. This is not required if the supplier has obtained an invoice reference number. The Invoice reference number is given to a supplier when he uploads a tax invoice issued by him in the GST portal. It is valid for 30 days from the date of upload of invoice.
3. Triplicate copy: This copy is retained by the supplier, and is marked as ‘Triplicate for supplier’.

For supply of services, two copies of the invoice are required – Original and Duplicate

1. Original Invoice: The original copy of the invoice is to be given to receiver, and is marked as ‘Original for recipient’.
2. Duplicate Copy: The duplicate copy is for the supplier, and is marked as ‘Duplicate for supplier’.

2. Bill of Supply

Bill of Supply is to be issued by a registered supplier in the following cases:

1. Supply of exempted goods or services
2. Supplier is paying tax under composition scheme

The bill of supply need not be issued when the value of goods or services supplied is less than Rs 100 unless the receiver insists for the bill. However, a consolidated bill of supply should be prepared at the end of the business day for all such supplies for which the bill of supply is not issued.
(Based on the rules regarding details required in a Bill of supply, a sample Bill of Supply has been shown below.)

Invoicing under VAT & Excise regime

Let us understand Invoicing under current VAT & Excise regime. Under VAT / Excise invoice is issued by a registered dealers and is used to claim input tax credit.
(Sample formats of the two main types of tax invoice in the current tax regime, the Rule 11 Excise invoice and tax invoice are shown below.)

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