The central board of excise and customs gave a list of facts on invoicing relating to gst:

By on 13-11-2018

HOW TO PREPARE YOUR INVOICE UNDER GST?

 THE CENTRAL BOARD OF EXCISE AND CUSTOMS GAVE A LIST OF FACTS ON INVOICING RELATING TO GST:

1) All GST taxpayers are free to design their own invoice format.

2) GST Law only required that certain fields must mandatorily be in the invoice.

3) The time period prescribed for issuing invoice is different for goods & services - for goods, it is any time before its delivery and for services, it is within 30 days from the date of supply of services.

4) Small taxpayers, like small retailers, doing a large number of small transactions for up to a value of Rs. 200 per transaction to unregistered customers need not issue invoice for every such truncation. They can issue one consolidated invoice at the end of each day for all transactions done during the day. However, they should issue the invoice where the customer so demands.

5) In normal circumstances, one copy of invoice is required to be carried by the transporter. However, GSTN provides a facility to obtain an invoice reference number and if a taxpayer has generated this number, his goods need not be accompanied by paper invoice during transportation. This mechanism helps to address frequently reported problems like paper invoices getting misplaced, mutilated, torn or lost in course of transportation of goods.

6) In order to keep compliance burden low for small taxpayers, GST law provides that taxpayers with annual turnover of up to Rs. 1.5 crore need to mention the HSN Code of the goods in the invoices.

7) Keeping in view the large number of transactions in the banking, insurance and passenger transport sector, taxpayers need not mention the address of the customer and the serial number in their invoices.

8) Where the goods are transported for delivery but quantity to be supplied is not known at the time of removal, the good may be removed on delivery challan and invoice may be issued after delivery.

9) No need to issue separate Bill of supply if VAT invoice is issued for non-taxable supplies.

Meanwhile, the GST Council, chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and comprising state counterparts, last week revised rates on 66 items. The panel has earlier set rates - ranging from 5 per cent to 28 per cent - for a multitude of goods and services under GST.

 THE BASICS

Every invoice should contain: 
1) name, address and GSTIN of the supplier. It should also have: 
2) a consecutive serial number, in one or multiple series, containing alphabets or numerals. It can also have special characters like hyphen, dash and slash or any combination that uses the above, but one that is unique for every financial year. 
3) date of its issue.

 SOME DETAILS

It should also contain the 
1) name, address and GSTIN or UIN, if registered, of the recipient; 
2) if such recipient is un-registered and where the value of taxable supply is Rs 50,000 or more, the invoice would need the name and address of the recipient and the address of delivery, along with the name of State and its code 
3) Harmonized System of Nomenclature (HSN) code of goods or Accounting Code of services. This list is quite exhaustive and it is imperative that you quote the correct code from the list.

 GREATER DESCRIPTION

The invoice should also contain
1) description of goods or services. Along with this you would need to state: 
2) quantity in case of goods and unit or Unique Quantity Code; 
3) total value of supply of goods or services or both; 
4) taxable value of supply of goods or services or both taking into account discount or abatement; 
5) rate of tax (central tax, State tax, integrated tax, Union territory tax or cess); 
6) amount of tax charged in respect of taxable goods or services (central tax, State tax, integrated tax, Union Territory tax or cess.

 RECIPIENT DETAILS

When it comes to details of the recipient of the invoice it should contain details like: 
1) place of supply along with the name of State when the supply in the course of inter-State trade or commerce; 
2) address of delivery when it is different from the place of supply; 
3) whether the tax is payable on reverse charge basis; and 
4) signature or digital signature of the supplier or his authorized representative:

 MANNER OF ISSUING INVOICE

One should note that in case of taxable supply of services, the invoice will be issued within a period of thirty days from the date of supply of service. 
1) The invoice shall be prepared in triplicate, in case of supply of goods, in the following manner: 
    (a) the original copy being marked as "Original for Recipient" 
    (b) the duplicate copy should be marked as "Duplicate for Transporter" 
    (c) the triplicate copy being marked as "Triplicate for Supplier". 
2) The invoice should be prepared in duplicate, in case of supply of services, in the following manner:- 
    (a) the original copy being marked as "Original for Recipient" 
    (b) the duplicate copy being marked as "Duplicate for Supplier" 
3) The serial number of invoices issued during a tax period can be furnished electronically through the Common Portal in FORM GSTR-1