India GST Invoice Requirements: Rule 46 Checklist

India GST invoice requirements start with Rule 46 of the CGST Rules, which sets the core particulars a tax invoice must carry for a taxable supply. In practice, that means every invoice template should be able to show the supplier's 15-digit GSTIN, a unique serial number of up to 16 characters, the invoice date, recipient details where applicable, a clear description of goods or services, taxable value, the rate and amount of tax, and the correct tax structure. One of the most important checks is whether the invoice should show CGST plus SGST or UTGST or IGST, because that depends on the transaction facts, especially place of supply.

If you are reviewing a template or checking a supplier invoice, this is the shortest useful Rule 46 checklist:

• Supplier details: legal name, address, and GSTIN of the supplier
• Invoice control details: a unique consecutive serial number and date of issue
• Recipient details where applicable: for registered recipients, name, address, and GSTIN or UIN; for higher-value unregistered cases, the recipient and delivery details Rule 46 requires
• Supply description: what was supplied, with enough detail to identify the goods or services
• Quantity and unit where relevant: especially important for goods invoices
• Value fields: total value and taxable value after any discount or abatement
• Tax fields: rate and amount of CGST plus SGST or UTGST, or IGST, as the case may be
• Place of supply where required: critical when the tax treatment depends on whether the supply is intra-state or inter-state
• Reverse charge disclosure where applicable
• Authentication: signature or digital signature

That checklist covers the headline mandatory fields, but a compliant Indian GST invoice is more than a field list. You also need the right tax breakup, the right document type, the right HSN or SAC depth for your situation, and the right reporting treatment once the invoice flows into GSTR-1. The rest of this guide focuses on those invoice-level decisions so you can use it as a working validation reference, not just a legal summary.

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How to Decide Between CGST Plus SGST or UTGST and IGST

The field list on a GST invoice only works if the tax columns match the transaction. For Indian invoice reviews, the first practical question is usually not "Did we include tax?" but "Did we show the right kind of tax?" For most routine invoices, the answer turns on the supplier location and the place of supply.

At a high level:

• Intra-state supply: the invoice usually shows CGST and SGST at equal rates
• Supply in a Union Territory: the invoice usually shows CGST and UTGST
• Inter-state supply: the invoice usually shows a single IGST line at the combined rate

That sounds simple until the transaction facts become less obvious. A billing address in one state and a delivery address in another can change the result. Goods shipped to a different location under a bill-to-ship-to arrangement can also affect place-of-supply treatment. That is why "place of supply" is not just another descriptive field. It is one of the core control points that determines whether the invoice is even taxing the supply correctly.

Three examples show how the invoice changes:

1. A supplier and buyer in Maharashtra, with delivery and place of supply also in Maharashtra, will usually result in CGST plus SGST.
2. A supplier in Karnataka invoicing a buyer where the supply is treated as taking place in Tamil Nadu will usually result in IGST.
3. A supplier dealing with a Union Territory transaction may need CGST plus UTGST, not SGST.

Recipient details also become more important once you move beyond a basic local sale. On B2B invoices, the recipient GSTIN affects both reporting and the buyer's input tax credit position. If reverse charge applies, that disclosure should appear clearly rather than being implied. If place of supply is required for the scenario, leaving it off can create confusion even when the tax math itself looks right.

This is where many invoice template problems begin. A business may have every obvious field on the form, but if the template defaults to the wrong tax structure, the invoice can still create compliance and reconciliation issues downstream.

Rule 46 Fields That Change by Scenario

Some Rule 46 particulars belong on almost every tax invoice. Others matter only when the facts of the transaction make them relevant. If you are configuring an ERP template or checking supplier invoices, this distinction matters because many compliance issues come from conditional fields being treated as optional by habit rather than reviewed against the actual supply.

The most obvious example is recipient information. For a registered B2B customer, recipient name, address, and GSTIN are not background details. They help determine whether the invoice can support correct reporting and input tax credit. A template that works for a walk-in retail sale may be incomplete for a registered business customer. For unregistered recipients on invoices of Rs 50,000 or more, Rule 46 also becomes more specific: the invoice should carry the recipient's name and address, the delivery address if it is different, and the state name and code. The same invoice review should also ask whether place of supply and reverse charge disclosures become necessary because of the underlying transaction, not because the template happens to have spare space.

The same is true for quantity and unit. On a goods invoice, quantity, unit, and description usually need to work together so the supply is identifiable. On a service invoice, the description and value may do more of the work, but the invoice still needs to make the nature of the supply clear enough for review and audit.

Then there are fields that become essential only in certain cases:

• Place of supply where the scenario requires it to support tax treatment
• Reverse charge indication where the liability structure demands it
• Taxable value after discount where discounts or abatements affect the tax base
• Serial numbering and invoice date as core control points for audit trail and filing
• Signature or digital signature as part of invoice authentication

This is why it helps to read Rule 46 as an operating framework, not as a one-time checklist to paste into a template. The field logic can shift when the recipient changes, when the tax treatment changes, or when a business moves into a different reporting threshold. Finance teams should keep one eye on the official framework under CBIC and on broader rule developments discussed by bodies such as the GST Council, because a static invoice format can drift out of date faster than many businesses expect.

HSN and SAC Requirements, GSTR-1 Reporting, and E-Invoicing Intersections

HSN and SAC requirements are one of the biggest reasons a GST invoice template that once worked can become outdated. The code requirement is not identical for every business or every supply, so the right question is not "Do we show a code?" but "What level of code detail applies in this case?"

A safer current working framework is:

• B2B invoices where the supplier's preceding-year turnover is up to Rs 5 crore: at least 4-digit HSN is generally expected
• B2B invoices where the supplier's preceding-year turnover exceeds Rs 5 crore: at least 6-digit HSN or SAC is generally expected
• Exports and imports of goods: 8-digit HSN is typically used
• Services: use SAC codes rather than HSN, but the same "show the right code depth for the transaction and turnover profile" discipline still applies
• B2C cases: code-display and return-reporting expectations can differ by turnover and reporting bucket, so templates should be checked against current GST Portal and CBIC instructions rather than older turnover summaries

If the business is within the e-invoicing regime, including the current Rs 5 crore and above threshold, that does not replace the invoice-field discipline described above. It adds another compliance layer on top of it. The invoice still needs the right coding depth, the right tax treatment, and the right underlying field logic. If you need the separate workflow implications, see our guide to India's IRN and IRP e-invoicing rules for GST-registered businesses.

The reporting side has also become more exacting. Taxmann's summary of GSTN's April 2025 Table 12 advisory notes that Phase III changes require HSN selection through a dropdown and split reporting into separate B2B and B2C tabs with cross-validation checks. That matters because HSN accuracy is no longer just an invoice-format issue. It directly affects return preparation and review.

From an operator's perspective, HSN or SAC errors usually create three types of trouble:

1. The invoice itself looks incomplete or inconsistent.
2. GSTR-1 reporting becomes harder to prepare or validate.
3. The business has a weaker position during reconciliation, audit, or customer query handling.

A good GST invoice review process therefore checks code depth, code relevance, and reporting readiness together rather than treating them as separate workstreams.

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When to Issue a Tax Invoice, Bill of Supply, Voucher, Challan, Debit Note, or Credit Note

Many GST invoicing errors happen because the business starts with the wrong document. A tax invoice is the standard document for taxable supplies, but GST requires several other document types for different commercial events. If you use the wrong one, the field list may look complete while the document logic is still wrong.

Here is the practical document-type map:

• Tax invoice: used for taxable supplies and governed by the Rule 46 particulars discussed earlier
• Bill of supply: used for exempt supplies or by composition-scheme dealers; tax amounts are not charged on the document
• Receipt voucher: issued when an advance is received before the supply is made
• Refund voucher: issued when an advance is returned because the underlying supply does not go ahead
• Payment voucher: used by the recipient in reverse-charge situations
• Delivery challan: used for movement without supply, such as job work or other qualifying scenarios
• Debit note: used when additional value or tax needs to be captured after the original invoice
• Credit note: used for returns, price reductions, or other downward adjustments

The tax invoice versus bill of supply distinction is especially important. A composition-scheme dealer does not issue a tax invoice to collect GST in the ordinary way. Instead, the business issues a bill of supply and uses the prescribed composition-scheme wording rather than showing output tax lines.

Voucher and challan rules matter because not every GST-relevant movement starts with a completed taxable supply. An advance can require a receipt voucher before the final invoice exists. A goods movement without supply may require a delivery challan, not an invoice, and the challan should be issued in triplicate for operational control. Under reverse charge, the payment-side documentation also matters.

Adjustment documents deserve the same care. A debit note or credit note is not a substitute for getting the original invoice right. It is a controlled correction mechanism. If you need a closer comparison, see how debit notes differ from invoices in adjustment workflows.

When businesses treat these documents as interchangeable, they create avoidable problems in reporting, reconciliation, and input tax credit review. The safer approach is to decide the document type first, then apply the correct field checklist to that document.

B2B vs B2C Treatment, E-Way Bills, and Other Workflow Overlays

The same invoice template does not always behave the same way in GST reporting. Whether the transaction is B2B or B2C changes how much detail needs to flow into returns and how carefully recipient data must be captured at invoice stage.

In practical GST reporting:

• B2B invoices are reported individually with fuller transaction detail
• B2C small supplies generally cover all intra-state supplies to unregistered buyers and lower-value inter-state supplies below the B2CL threshold, which are consolidated by rate for reporting purposes
• B2C large supplies generally cover inter-state supplies to unregistered buyers above Rs 1 lakh, which are reported invoice-wise

That last point matters because the B2CL threshold was reduced in August 2024 from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 1 lakh. A business using an older review checklist can therefore under-capture invoice-level detail for transactions that now need closer reporting attention.

HSN expectations also differ in practice. For many businesses, B2B invoices must carry the required HSN or SAC depth, while some B2C buckets remain lighter. So the right invoice review is not only "Is there an HSN field?" but also "Does this customer type, turnover position, and reporting bucket require it here?"

Rule 46 compliance is only one layer of the workflow. Some businesses must also handle e-invoicing. Others need logistics compliance when goods move. If the transaction involves goods transport, review when goods movement also triggers India's e-way bill requirements alongside the invoice itself.

In other words, a valid Indian GST invoice often sits inside a wider process. The document needs the correct mandatory particulars, the correct tax structure, the correct reporting treatment in GSTR-1, and sometimes an adjacent e-invoicing or movement-control workflow as well.

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A Practical GST Invoice Validation Checklist

If you want one final screen before issuing or booking an invoice, use this:

• Confirm the document type first. Is this really a tax invoice, or should it be a bill of supply, receipt voucher, payment voucher, refund voucher, delivery challan, debit note, or credit note?
• Check the party details. Supplier GSTIN should be correct, and recipient details should match the transaction type, especially for B2B invoices.
• Check the tax structure. Make sure the invoice shows CGST plus SGST or UTGST or IGST based on supplier location and place of supply, not based on habit.
• Check place of supply. If the scenario requires it, this field should be present and consistent with the tax treatment.
• Check the value build-up. Description, quantity or unit where relevant, total value, taxable value, and tax amounts should all align.
• Check conditional disclosures. Reverse charge wording, HSN or SAC depth, and any scenario-specific fields should reflect the actual transaction.
• Check reporting readiness. B2B versus B2C treatment, HSN expectations, and any e-invoicing or e-way bill overlay should already make sense from the invoice data.
• Check control fields. Serial number sequence, invoice date, and signature or digital signature should all be present and internally consistent.

The common failure pattern is not usually a blank form. It is a mostly complete invoice with one wrong logic choice underneath it: the wrong tax split, a missing place-of-supply field, an outdated HSN depth, missing recipient GSTIN on a B2B invoice, or the wrong GST document entirely. That is why the safest review process checks both the field list and the transaction logic behind the field list.

Used this way, the Rule 46 checklist becomes more than a compliance note. It becomes a working invoice-validation tool for billing teams, accountants, and AP reviewers.