According to the Tax Laws Lexicon, an Invoice means, “a list of goods shipped or sent, or services rendered, with prices and charges, a bill”.
Who Can Raise a Tax Invoice?
A tax invoice can only be raised by a registered taxable person for every supply of goods or services. Raising a tax invoice is compulsory under the CGST Act.
Tax invoice of the CGST Act includes:
a) A document issued by an Input Service Distributor.
b) Any supplementary invoice.
c) A Revised Invoice.
A “tax invoice” shall include any revised invoice issued by the supplier in respect of a supply made earlier.
Essentials of an Invoice:
- Particulars – Tax invoice has to contain:
- Name, address and the GSTIN of the supplier has to be mention
- Serial Number
- Date of Issue of invoice
- Name, address and the GSTIN or Unique Identity Numer, if registered, of the recipient and the address of delivery, along with the state name and the code of the state, if such recipient us unregistered
- HSN Code of Goods or Accounting Code of Services with the help of GST Rate Finder tool
- Tax invoice should mention description of the goods or services
- Quantity of the goods and unit or Unique Quantity Code should be properly mentioned
- Value of the goods or services or both supplied should be stated in the invoice.
- Rate of tax and nature of tax (CGST, SGST, IGST or UTGST)
- Amount of tax charged has to be mentioned
- Place of supply along with the name and code of the state
- Address of delivery where the same is different from the place of supply
- Whether tax is payable on reverse charge basis has to be mentioned
- Signature or Digital Signature of the supplier or his representative
2. The tax charged on the goods or services or both and other particulars should be very specific and crystal clear.
3. The Government has specified the number of digits of HSN code to be specified on a tax invoice.