An invoice is a commercial device handed over by a vendor to a consumer. It recognises both the trader and lists, description, and the number of objects sold, indicates the shipment date and conveyance, costs and discounts, if any, and delivery and compensation manners.
Under the GST rule, an “invoice” or “tax invoice” denotes the tax invoice stated under section 31 of the CGST Act, 2017. This section makes it compulsory the allotment of an invoice or a bill of supply for every supply of goods or services.
It is not essential that an individual delivering goods or services must issue the invoice exclusively. The GST law directs that any person registered under GST rules, buying goods or services from a person not registered must allocate a payment receipt and a tax invoice.
The new amendments submitted by the Finance Minister regarding the GST invoice rules 2021 stated that any action of input tax credit fraud attracts imprisonment. This applies to the defaulters not furnishing the invoice, and the evaded tax amount or wrongly availed input tax credit is worth over Rs. 5 crores. This offence is punishable with imprisonment for up to five years and is non-bailable and cognizable. Since 2019, more than 60 lakh new taxpayers have declared their acquisitions, and GST e-way bills of 105 crores have been generated. The new amendments aim to support the government in improving the number of taxpayers and punishing the defaulters.
A tax invoice is typically allocated for charging the tax and passing on the input tax credit. A GST Invoice should maintain the following obligatory fields- 1. Invoice number and date 2. Name of the customer, Billing, and shipping address 3. In case the parties are registered under the GST Act, the GSTIN of the Customer and taxpayer 4. Place of supply 5. SAC code or HSN code 6. Details of items such as portrayal, amount or quantity, and total value 7. Cost and discounts of the taxation 8. Amount and rate of taxes under categories - CGST/ SGST/ IGST 9. Whether GST is expected on a reverse demand basis 10. Signature of the supplier Two copies of invoices must be issued for services, and three copies of the invoice should be issued.
It is possible to revise invoices allocated before GST. Under the GST rule, all the vendors mandatorily use temporary registration before acquiring the certificate of permanent registration. This applies to all invoices allocated between the date of GST implementation and the issuance date of the registration certificate.
It is important to issue a revised invoice against the invoices already issued as a vendor. The revised invoice maintains to be issued within 1 month from the issuance date of the registration certificate.