Generally speaking, an invoice is a commercial
instrument issued by a seller to a buyer. It identifies both the trading
parties and lists, describes, and quantifies the items sold, shows the date of
shipment and mode of transport, prices and discounts, if any, and delivery and
payment terms.
In certain cases, (especially when it is signed by
the seller or seller’s agent), an invoice serves as a demand for payment and
becomes a document of title when paid in full. Types of invoice include
commercial invoice, consular invoice, customs invoice, and proforma invoice. It
is also called a bill of sale or contract of sale.
Time
Limit of Issuing Tax Invoice:
Case-1
Supply of Goods
A registered person supplying taxable
goods shall, before or at the time of,-
(a) removal of goods for supply to the recipient, where the
supply involves movement of goods; or
(b) delivery of goods or making available thereof to the
recipient, in any other case,
issue a tax invoice showing the description, quantity and value
of goods, the tax charged thereon and such other particulars as may be prescribed:
Case-2 Supply of
Services:
A registered person supplying taxable
services shall, before or after the provision of service but within a prescribed,
issue a tax invoice, showing the description, value, tax charged thereon and
such other particulars as may be prescribed:
The invoice of the taxable supply of
services, shall be issued within a
period of thirty days from the date of the supply of service:
Provided that where the supplier of services is an insurer or a banking
company or a financial institution, including a non-banking financial company,
the period within which the invoice or any document in lieu thereof is to be
issued shall be forty five days from the date of the supply of
service:
Provided further that an insurer or a banking company or a financial
institution, including anon-banking financial company, or a telecom operator,
or any other class of supplier of services as may be notified by the Government
on the recommendations of the Council, making taxable supplies of services
between distinct persons as specified
in section 25,
may issue the invoice before or at the time such supplier records the same in
his books of account or before the expiry of the quarter during which the
supply was made.
Contents of
Invoice
There
is no format prescribed for an invoice, however, Invoice rules makes it
mandatory for an invoice to have following fields (only applicable field are to
be filled):
·
Name, address and GSTIN
of the supplier;
·
A consecutive serial
number, in one or multiple series, containing alphabets or numerals or special
characters hyphen or dash and slash symbolised as “-” and “/” respectively, and
any combination thereof, unique for a financial year;
·
Date of its issue;
·
Name, address and GSTIN
or UIN, if registered, of the recipient;
·
Name and address of the
recipient and the address of delivery, along with the name of State and its
code, if such recipient is un-registered and where the value of taxable supply
is fifty thousand rupees or more;
·
HSN code of goods or
Accounting Code of services;
·
Description of goods or
services;
·
Quantity in case of
goods and unit or Unique Quantity Code thereof;
·
Total value of supply
of goods or services or both;
·
Taxable value of supply
of goods or services or both taking into account discount or abatement, if any;
·
Rate of tax (central
tax, State tax, integrated tax, Union territory tax or cess);
·
Amount of tax charged
in respect of taxable goods or services (central tax, State tax, integrated
tax, Union territory tax or cess);
·
Place of supply along
with the name of State, in case of a supply in the course of inter-State trade
or commerce;
·
Address of delivery
where the same is different from the place of supply;
·
Whether the tax is
payable on reverse charge basis; and
·
Signature or digital
signature of the supplier or his authorized representative.
Manner of
Issuing Invoice
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 being marked as DUPLICATE FOR TRANSPORTER; and
(c)
The triplicate copy being marked as TRIPLICATE FOR SUPPLIER.
The
invoice shall be prepared in duplicate, in
case of supply of services, in the following manner:
(a)
The original copy being marked as ORIGINAL FOR RECIPIENT; and
(b)
The duplicate copy being marked as DUPLICATE FOR SUPPLIER.
Disclaimer: All the Information is based on the
notification, circular and order issued by the Govt. authority and judgement delivered by the court or
the authority information is strictly for educational purposes and on the basis of our best understanding of
laws & not binding on anyone.
