GST Bill Types: Tax Invoice & Bill of Supply

Pramit Pratim Ghosh |Updated on: March 9, 2021

Types of GST Bill
What is GST Bill or Tax Invoice?
By when does one need to issue the Tax Invoice as part of GST Billing?
How many copies of the Tax Invoice are required for GST Billing?
What is the minimum amount for which one can raise a Tax Invoice for GST Billing?
What is Bill of Supply in GST?

Types of GST Bill

In the GST regime, primarily two types of GST bill or GST invoices will be issued, according to the GST billing process:

Tax Invoice
Bill of Supply

The GST council has prescribed standard GST Bill format in India, which are downloadable as GST Bill format PDF at the CBEC website.

What is GST Bill or Tax Invoice?

When a registered taxable person supplies taxable goods or services – a Tax Invoice is issued. The GST sales bill format is extremely crucial since, to issue and receive a GST compliant invoice is a prerequisite to claim Input Tax Credit (ITC) . If a dealer does not issue such an invoice to his customer (who is a registered taxable person) – his customer loses the claimable ITC and the dealer loses his customers. The bill format for GST is thus important both for the supplier as well as the customer.

Businesses need to ensure that the following mandatory GST bill details are being captured in the GST Bill format:

Invoice number and date
Customer name
Shipping and billing address
Customer and taxpayer’s GSTIN
Place of supply
HSN / SAC code
Taxable value and discounts
Rate and amount of taxes i.e. CGST + SGST (for intrastate) & IGST (for inter-state)
Item details i.e. description, unit price, quantity

These details of GST bill should be filled out carefully for each transaction as per the GST billing format prescribed by the GST council.

By when does one need to issue the Tax Invoice as part of GST Billing?

For Supply of Goods

The tax invoice must be issued before or at the time of:

Removal of goods, where supply involves movement of goods
Delivery of goods to the recipient, where supply does not require movement of goods
Issue of account statement/ payment, where there is continuous supply

For Supply of Services

The tax invoice must be issued within:

30 days from the date of supply of the service
45 days from the date of supply of the service, where the supplier is an insurer or banking company or a financial institution

How many copies of the Tax Invoice are required for GST Billing?

For Supply of Goods

Three copies of the GST billing format in India are required – Original, Duplicate, and Triplicate.

Original invoice: The original invoice is issued to the receiver, and is marked as ‘Original for Recipient’.
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 can be obtained by the supplier when he uploads a tax invoice issued by him on to the GST portal. It is valid for 30 days from the date of upload of invoice.
Triplicate copy: This copy is retained by the supplier, and is marked as ‘Triplicate for Supplier’.

For Supply of Services

Two copies of the GST bill format India are required:

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

What is the minimum amount for which one can raise a Tax Invoice for GST Billing?

As per the provisions of bill format in GST, a tax invoice need not be issued when the value of the goods or services supplied is less than INR 200 if:

The recipient is unregistered
The recipient does not require an invoice (In case the recipient demands for the invoice, Tax Invoice should be issued)

What is Bill of Supply in GST?

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

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

Similar to the tax invoice billing format in GST, a bill of supply need not be issued when the value of goods or services supplied is less than INR 200, 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.

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