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Adullam Tools

GST compliance

GST invoice requirement checker & draft generator

Check what an Indian tax invoice must carry, provision by provision, and produce an A4 draft you can print. Decides CGST+SGST versus IGST from the place of supply and shows the clause it relied on.

Statutory rates as of 30 Aug 2026No IRN or QR

Inputs

Input mode

Asks only what it must and fills the rest with the most common value. Everything it filled in is listed under the result.

What you type stays in this browser

Calculation, validation and PDF generation all happen locally. Unless you turn on account storage yourself, your trade names, GSTINs and line items are never sent to a server.

Some inputs are mirrored into the address bar. Share the link and you share those values.

Invoice number and date

The number must be 16 characters or fewer and unique within the financial year. Rule 46(b)(c)

0 / 16

Rule 46(c)

INV/2026-27/0001Starting a new series for FY2026-27.

Supplier — the side issuing the invoice

The first two digits of the GSTIN are the state of registration, and that state is one half of the CGST+SGST versus IGST test.

Entering the GSTIN fills in the supplier state automatically.

Recipient — the side being billed

Leave the GSTIN blank and the supply is treated as unregistered (B2C).

Leave blank for an unregistered (B2C) recipient. Format and checksum only — whether the registration exists is not checked.

Not the billing address: this state decides whether the invoice carries CGST+SGST or IGST. IGST Act s.12(2)

Line items

Choose the rate yourself. Rates are never mapped automatically from the HSN code.

Line 1

One amount per line. Quantity and unit of measure live in Detailed mode.

Tax₹0Total₹0

Rates are revised often and classification is contested. Nothing is inferred from the HSN — confirm and pick the rate yourself.

Export and LUT fields, credit and debit notes, a separate delivery address, discounts, cess and the print layouts all open in Detailed mode.

What has to be right on an Indian tax invoice

How this differs from a national VAT invoice

In some countries, Korea among them, an electronic tax invoice is complete once it is filed with the tax office. India works differently. An Indian tax invoice is, as a rule, a private document the supplier creates and hands over; the state only steps in for e-invoicing by suppliers above a turnover threshold. That makes "what must appear on it" entirely the issuer's responsibility. CGST Rule 46 lists the mandatory particulars from (a) to (q), and a missing one can cost the buyer its input tax credit. In practice disputes are almost never about the rate — they are about these particulars.

The second difference is that there is not one tax head but two or three. At 18%, an intra-State supply is written as CGST 9% plus SGST 9%; an inter-State supply is a single line of IGST 18%. Get it wrong and the total is identical but the money goes to the wrong government, leaving a shortfall on one side and an overpayment on the other. It is correctable, with interest and a lot of paperwork.

CGST/SGST or IGST — the test is not the recipient's address

The test compares the supplier's registered State with the **place of supply**. The place of supply often equals the recipient's address, but not always, and the gap is where errors live.

For goods, IGST Act s.10 governs. The clause that trips people up is s.10(1)(b), bill-to/ship-to. If a Delhi company buys goods and asks for delivery straight to its Tamil Nadu plant, the goods travel to Tamil Nadu but the place of supply is **Delhi**, because the law deems the third person to have received them. A single national VAT such as Korea's has no equivalent of this deeming rule, and anyone reasoning from the delivery address will get it wrong.

Domestic services default to s.12(2): the registered recipient's location, or for an unregistered recipient the address on record. Special clauses override that. In particular s.12(3) puts services relating to immovable property at the property's location — fit out a Mumbai office through a Delhi contractor and the place of supply is Maharashtra, so the Delhi contractor charges IGST.

Cross-border services fall under s.13. From 30 March 2026 the intermediary clause s.13(8)(b) has been omitted. Before that, an Indian company doing market research or sourcing support for its overseas parent (a Korean head office, say), if classified as an intermediary, had its own location as the place of supply — a domestic supply attracting CGST+SGST. After the omission, s.13(2) applies, the place of supply is the parent's location abroad, and the fee can qualify as an export of services. Whether a given engagement is intermediation or a service on one's own account is still argued from the contract, so tidy contract wording is worth the effort.

The invoice number — going over 16 characters is remarkably common

Rule 46(b) requires a consecutive serial number "not exceeding sixteen characters", containing only letters, numerals, hyphen and slash — no spaces, no underscores. `INV/2026-27/0001` is exactly 16 and passes; the hyphenated `INV-2026-27-00001` is 17 and fails. Porting a head-office voucher scheme straight over is the usual way into this trap.

Consecutiveness and uniqueness cannot be proved from a single string. This tool compares the number against the ledger recorded on this device and, when the financial year rolls over (India's year starts 1 April), suggests a number with the year token rewritten and the sequence reset to 1. It is the same reason duplicating a document always mints a fresh number: reusing one is not permitted.

If e-invoicing applies, this PDF is not a tax invoice

If aggregate turnover exceeded ₹5 crore in any financial year from 2017-18 onwards, B2B and export invoices must be registered on the government Invoice Registration Portal, which returns an IRN and a QR code. Rule 48(5) states flatly that a document issued without that process "shall not be treated as an invoice". The buyer loses credit and the supplier is treated as not having issued anything.

Adullam Tools does **not** generate an IRN or a QR code — not because it cannot, but because it must not. Only the government issues an IRN, and printing something that resembles one produces a forged document. So this tool stops at checking requirements and drafting, and the output itself says that it carries no e-invoice. If you are in scope, issue through the IRP or software connected to it, and use this to check the draft first.

A bill of supply is not a tax invoice with the tax hidden

A supplier making exempt supplies, or one paying tax under the composition scheme, cannot issue a tax invoice. It issues a bill of supply under CGST Rule 49 — a different rule, a different set of particulars, and no tax column at all. Taking a tax invoice template and hiding the tax column does not satisfy the rule. A composition dealer must additionally print the prescribed declaration that it is not eligible to collect tax on supplies.

Credit and debit notes are separate documents too. They must reference the original invoice number and date, and the tax on a credit note may only be adjusted up to 30 November following the end of the financial year of the supply, or the date of the annual return, whichever is earlier. After that you can still give commercial credit, but you cannot reduce output tax.

What this tool deliberately does not do

It does not fill in a rate from an HSN or SAC code. Indian GST rates are revised often and classification is argued constantly. Automatic mapping looks helpful right up to the moment it is wrong, and the consequence lands on the user. You choose the rate; we do the arithmetic.

It validates a GSTIN's format and checksum only: fifteen characters in the right shape, with a final character consistent with the first fourteen. Whether a live registration exists behind that number requires a GSP contract. Passing the checksum is not proof that the registration is real or active.

And every determination here is a **suggestion**. Place of supply in particular turns on contract structure, logistics and the status of the parties, and several clauses are contested. That is why the governing provision is shown next to every answer — so you can check the reasoning rather than trust a bare verdict. Have an Indian Chartered Accountant review anything before you issue or file it.

Frequently asked questions

Compare the supplier's registered State with the place of supply. If they match it is intra-State: split the rate in half and show CGST and SGST separately. If they differ it is inter-State and the whole rate is IGST. Inside a union territory without a legislature (Chandigarh, Ladakh and others), the State half is UTGST rather than SGST. The total is the same either way, but the money goes to a different government, so getting it wrong means a correction.

Usually they coincide, which is why the distinction is easy to miss. The classic divergence is bill-to/ship-to for goods: a Delhi buyer asks for delivery to Tamil Nadu, the goods go to Tamil Nadu, but IGST Act s.10(1)(b) deems the third person to have received them, so the place of supply is Delhi. Services relating to immovable property behave the same way — the property's location governs, not the client's address.

CGST Rule 46(b) says "a consecutive serial number not exceeding sixteen characters", and it limits the characters to letters, numerals, hyphen and slash — no spaces or underscores. `INV/2026-27/0001` is exactly 16 and fits; `INV-2026-27-00001` is 17 and does not. This tool checks length and character set as you type.

CGST Rule 48(1) requires an invoice for a supply of goods to be prepared in triplicate, with each sheet carrying its purpose printed on it: ORIGINAL FOR RECIPIENT, DUPLICATE FOR TRANSPORTER and TRIPLICATE FOR SUPPLIER. For a supply of services, Rule 48(2) requires two copies — ORIGINAL FOR RECIPIENT and DUPLICATE FOR SUPPLIER. The transporter copy exists because goods in transit are checked in India, and an officer stopping the vehicle needs the document. Practice has moved on: verification now usually happens through the e-way bill number carried under Rule 138A, or the IRN and QR code where e-invoicing applies, so the physical third sheet is rarely handed over. The marking on the face of the document is still a requirement, though. Systems that issue tax invoices purely electronically have no equivalent concept, so a template carried over from one of them will silently omit it. The draft PDF this tool produces does not print the marking — if you are supplying goods, add it before issuing and have your chartered accountant confirm the format.

If aggregate turnover exceeded ₹5 crore in any financial year from 2017-18 onwards — not merely the preceding year — you are in scope. B2B and export invoices then need an IRN from the IRP, and a document without one is not treated as an invoice (Rule 48(5)). SEZ units, insurers, banks, goods transport agencies, passenger transport, cinemas and government bodies are notified as exempt.

If e-invoicing does not apply to you and every mandatory particular is present, it is usable in practice. If e-invoicing does apply, no — a document without an IRN is not a valid tax invoice, which is why that statement is always printed on the output. Either way, have a CA review it before you start issuing.

At a taxable value of ₹50,000 or more, Rule 46(e) and (f) require the recipient's name and address, the address of delivery, and the State together with its code. Below that the details are not mandatory, though the recipient can ask for them. This tool switches those checks to mandatory the moment the value crosses the threshold.

For goods involving movement, before or at removal; otherwise at delivery (CGST Act s.31(1)). For services, within 30 days of the supply, and 45 days for a bank, insurer, financial institution or NBFC (Rule 47). Enter the date of supply and the tool shows how many days remain or how far the deadline has been missed.

The picture changed on 30 March 2026, when the intermediary clause (IGST Act s.13(8)(b)) was omitted. The general rule in s.13(2) now applies, putting the place of supply at the recipient's location — the parent's country, outside India. Meet the other conditions, notably receipt in convertible foreign exchange and the two parties not being establishments of the same person, and it qualifies as an export of services. Whether the engagement is intermediation at all is still read off the contract, so review the date of supply and the wording together.

By default in this browser's local storage. Nothing is sent to a server, so switching devices or clearing site data loses them. A saved party carries its default place of supply, so loading it also settles the CGST/SGST versus IGST question — that is the real reason presets exist. Where account storage is enabled, the same presets follow you across devices.

No. It sits under CGST Rule 49, carries a different set of particulars, and must have no tax column at all — a tax invoice with the tax column hidden does not satisfy the rule. Switch the document type here and the draft is rendered as a genuine bill of supply, with the composition declaration added when that applies.

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