What is a GST Invoice

1. What is a GST Invoice?

An invoice or a bill is a list of goods sent or services provided, along with the amount due for payment.

You can create GST compliant invoices FREE of cost using Aster Billing

2. Who should issue GST Invoice?

If you are a GST registered business, you need to provide GST-complaint invoices to your clients for sale of good and/or services.

Your GST registered vendors will provide GST-compliant purchase invoices to you.

3. What are the mandatory fields a GST Invoice should have?

A tax invoice is generally issued to charge the tax and pass on the input tax credit. A GST Invoice must have the following mandatory fields:

1. Invoice number and date
2. Customer name
3. Shipping and billing address
4. Customer and taxpayer’s GSTIN (if registered)**
5. Place of supply
6. HSN code/ SAC code
7. Item details i.e. description, quantity (number), unit (meter, kg etc.), total value
8. Taxable value and discounts
9. Rate and amount of taxes i.e. CGST/ SGST/ IGST
10. Whether GST is payable on reverse charge basis
11. Signature of the supplier

**If the recipient is not registered AND the value is more than Rs. 50,000 then the invoice should carry:

   i. name and address of the recipient,

  ii. address of delivery,

  iii. state name and state code

Here is a sample invoice for your reference:

4. By when should you issue invoices?

The GST Act has defined time limit to issue GST tax invoices, revised bills, debit notes, and credit note.

Following are the due dates for issuing an invoice to customers:

5. How to personalize GST Invoices?

You can personalize your invoice with your company’s logo. The ClearTax BillBook allows you to create and personalize GST Invoice free of cost.

6. What are other types of invoices?

6.A. Bill of Supply

A bill of supply is similar to a GST invoice except for that bill of supply does not contain any tax amount as the seller cannot charge GST to the buyer.

A bill of supply is issued in cases where tax cannot be charged:

• Registered person is selling exempted goods/services,
• Registered person has opted for composition scheme

Invoice-cum-bill of supply

As per Notification No. 45/2017 – Central Tax dated 13th October 2017

If a registered person is supplying taxable as well as exempted goods/ services to an unregistered person, then he can issue a single “invoice-cum-bill of supply” for all such supplies.

6.B. Aggregate Invoice

If the value of multiple invoices is less than Rs. 200 and the buyer are unregistered, the seller can issue an aggregate or bulk invoice for the multiple invoices on a daily basis.

For example, you may have issued 3 invoices in a day of Rs.80, Rs.90 and Rs. 120. In such a case, you can issue a single invoice, totaling to Rs290, to be called an aggregate invoice.

6.C. Debit and credit note

A debit note is issued by the seller when the amount payable by the buyer to seller increases:

1. Tax invoice has a lower taxable value than the amount that should have been charged
2. Tax invoice has a lower tax value than the amount that should have been charged

A credit note is issued by the seller when the value of invoice decreases:

1. Tax invoice has a higher taxable value than the amount that should have been charged
2. Tax invoice has a higher tax value than the amount that should have been charged
3. Buyer refunds the goods to the supplier
4. Services are found to be deficient

7. Can you revise invoices issued before GST?

Yes. You can revise invoices issued before GST. Under the GST regime, all the dealers must apply for provisional registration before getting the permanent registration certificate.

Refer to this image below to understand the protocol of issuing a revised invoice:

This applies to all the invoices issued between the date of implementation of GST and the date your registration certificate has been issued.

As a dealer, you must issue a revised invoice against the invoices already issued. The revised invoice has to be issued within 1 month from the date of issue of the registration certificate.

8. How many copies of Invoices should be issued?

• For goods– 3 copies
• For services– 2 copies

9. GST Invoicing under Special Cases?

In some cases, like banking, passenger transport, etc., the government has provided relaxations on the invoice format issued by the supplier.

GSTR-1 -ASTER BILLING

Basics of GSTR-1

a. What is GSTR-1?

GSTR-1 is a monthly or quarterly return that should be filed by every registered dealer. It contains details of all outward supplies i.e sales.

The return has a total of 13 sections.

b. When is GSTR-1 due?

The due dates for GSTR-1 are based on your turnover.

Businesses with sales of upto Rs. 1.5 crore will file quarterly returns.

Other taxpayers with sales above Rs. 1.5 crore have to file monthly return.

Here are the due dates for the return until March  2018.

Period	Due date
Apr-Jun 2018	31st July 2018
Jul-Sept 2018	31st Oct 2018
Oct-Dec 2018	31st Jan 2019
Jan-Mar 2018	30th Apr 2019

If your turnover is greater than Rs. 1.5 crore a return should be filed for every month.

October 201811th November 2018November 201811th December 2018

Period	Due date
June 2018	10th July 2018
July 2018	11th August 2018
August 2018	11th September 2018
September 2018	11th October 2018

c. Who should file GSTR-1?

Every registered person is required to file GSTR-1 irrespective of whether there are any transactions during the month or not.

The following registered persons are exempt from filing the return:

• Input Service Distributors
• Composition Dealers
• Suppliers of online information and database access or retrieval services (OIDAR), who have to pay tax themselves (as per Section 14 of the IGST Act)
• Non-resident taxable person
• Taxpayer liable to collect TCS
• Taxpayer liable to deduct TDS

d. How to revise GSTR-1?

Return once filed cannot be revised. Any mistake made in the return can be rectified in the next periods (month/quarter) return. It means that if a mistake is made in September GSTR-1, rectification for the same can be made in October’s GSTR-1.

e. Late Fees and Penalty

Late Fees for not filing GSTR-1 is Rs. 200 per day of delay (Rs. 100 as per CGST Act and Rs. 100 as per SGST Act. The late fees will be charged from the date after the due date.

GST Billing- Aster Billing

BREAKING DOWN 'Goods and Services Tax - GST'

The goods and services tax (GST) is an indirect federal sales tax that is applied to the cost of certain goods and services. The business adds the GST to the price of the product and a customer who buys the product pays the sales price plus GST. The GST portion is collected by the business or seller and forwarded to the government. It is also referred to as Value-Added Tax (VAT) in some countries.

Which Countries Collect the GST?

France was the first country to implement the GST in 1954, and since then an estimated 160 countries have adopted this tax system in some form or another. Some of the countries with GST include Canada, Vietnam, Australia, Singapore, the U.K., Monaco, Spain, Italy, Nigeria, Brazil, and South Korea. India joined the GST group on July 1, 2017.

How the GST Systems Work

Most countries with a GST have a single unified GST system, which means that a single tax rate is applied throughout the country. A country with a unified GST platform merges central taxes (e.g. sales tax, excise duty tax, and service tax) with state-level taxes (e.g. entertainment tax, entry tax, transfer tax, sin tax, and luxury tax) and collects them as one single tax. These countries tax virtually everything at a single rate.

Dual GST Structures: Canada

Only a handful such as Canada have a dual GST structure. Compared to a unified GST economy where tax is collected by the federal or central government and then distributed to the states, in a dual system, the federal GST is applied in addition to the state sales tax. In Canada for example, the federal government levies a 5 percent tax and some provinces/states also levy a provincial state tax (PST), which varies from 7 to 10 percent. In this case, a consumer’s receipt will clearly have the GST and PST rate that was applied to his or purchase value.

More recently, the GST and PST have been combined in some provinces into a single tax known as the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST). Prince Edward Island was the first to adopt the HST in 2013, combining its federal and provincial sales taxes to a single tax at 14 percent. Since then, several other provinces have followed suit including New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Ontario.  

India's Adoption of the GST

India proposed to have a dual GST set up in 2017, which will be the biggest reform in the country’s tax structure in decades. The main objective of incorporating the GST is to eliminate tax on tax or double taxation, which cascades from the manufacturing level to the consumption level. For example, a manufacturer that makes notebooks obtains the raw materials for, say, Rs. 10, which includes a 10 percent tax. This means that he pays Rs. 1 in tax for Rs. 9 worth of materials. In the process of manufacturing the notebook, he adds value to the original materials of Rs. 5, for a total value of Rs. 10 + Rs. 5 = Rs. 15. The 10 percent tax due on the finished good will be Rs. 1.50. Under a GST system, this additional tax can be applied against the previous tax he paid to bring his effective tax rate to Rs. 1.50 - Rs. 1.00 = Rs. 0.50.

The wholesaler purchases the notebook for Rs. 15 and sells it to the retailer at a Rs. 2.50 markup value for Rs. 17.50. The 10 percent tax on the gross value of the good will be Rs. 1.75 which he can apply against the tax on the original cost price from the manufacturer i.e. Rs. 15. The wholesaler’s effective tax rate will, thus, be Rs. 1.75 - Rs. 1.50 = Rs. 0.25.

If the retailer’s margin is Rs. 1.50, his effective tax rate will be (10% x Rs. 19) - Rs. 1.75 = Rs. 0.15. Total tax that cascades from manufacturer to retailer will be Rs. 1 + Rs. 0.50 + Rs. 0.25 + Rs. 0.15 = Rs. 1.90.

The country has, since launching the GST on July 1, 2017, implemented five different tax rates. 

• A zero percent tax rate applies to certain foods, books, newspapers, homespun cotton cloth and hotel services under Rs. 1000. 
• A rate of 0.25 percent will be applied to rough industrial diamonds.
• Five percent tax rates will be applied to apparel below Rs. 1000, packaged food items, footwear under Rs. 500, etc. 
• The next rate — 12 percent — applies to apparel over Rs. 1000, frozen meats, cutlery, sugar, biodiesel, etc. 
• An 18 percent tax rate applies to certain luxury items including makeup, pastries, swimming pools, footwear costing more than Rs. 500, etc. 
• The final bracket, taxing goods at 28 percent, applies to 50 luxury products and those deemed “sinful” including sunscreen, ceramic tiles, bidis (Indian cigarettes), cars, motorcycles, etc. 

The previous system with no GST implies that tax is paid on the value of goods and margin at every stage of the production process. This would translate to a higher amount of total taxes paid, which is carried down to the end consumer in the form of higher costs for goods and services. Implementing the GST system in India is, therefore, a measure that will be used to reduce inflation in the long run, as prices for goods will be lower.

Trademark Registration - Online Filing with Expert Help Aster Billing

A trademark is a visual symbol, which may be a word, name, device, label or numerals used by a business to distinguish it goods or services from other similar goods or services originating from a different business. A registered trademark is an intangible asset or intellectual property for a business and is used to protect the company's investment in the brand or symbol. A trademark is registrable if it is distinctive for the goods and services you provide. 

Proposed trademarks that are similar or identical to an existing registered trademark cannot be registered. Also, trademarks are not registrable if it is offensive, generic, deceptive, not distinctive, contains specially protected emblems, etc.,Trademarks in India are registered by the Controller General of Patents Designs and Trademarks, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. Trademarks are registered under the Trademark Act, 1999 and provide the trademark owner with a right to sue for damages when infringements of trademarks occur. Once a trademark is registered, R symbol can be used and the registration will be valid for 10 years. 

Registered trademarks nearing expiry can be easily renewed by filing a trademark renewal application for a period of another 10 years.IndiaFilings is the market leader in trademark filing services in India, offering a variety of trademark services like trademark filing, trademark objection reply, trademark opposition, trademark renewal and patent registration. Get a free consultation for trademark registration by scheduling an appointment with an IndiaFilings Trademark Expert.

Different Ways To Bill Your Clients- Aster Billing

Different Ways To Bill Your Clients

Aster Billing

Before you commence set up with Practice Ignition, you will need to understand the different ways you can bill your clients. 

There are the six billing types (four of which have optional additional functions) available in Practice Ignition, which can be split up into two categories:

Billing types for one-time services, annual services, or project work.

• On Acceptance
• On Completion (with the option to take a deposit)
• Estimate (with the option to quote an Hourly rate or a Price Range)

Billing Types for ongoing services.

• Monthly Recurring 
• Weekly Recurring
• Included Services (however this can also be used to describe one-time services).

Both monthly and weekly recurring also have the option to collect catch up payments using pro-rata, which is outlined in detail below. 

Let's break down each of these billing types:

Billing types for project work (one-time services)

If you provide one-time services for your clients, you have multiple options to your disposal in Practice Ignition 

On Acceptance

When should I use this billing type?There are two scenarios where you could use this billing type:

• If you'd like to collect payment for a one-time service before the work commences, use On Acceptance. 
• If you'd like to collect an initial retainer or a deposit for multiple services in a single proposal, you may want to set up a retainer/deposit service using the On Acceptance billing type. 

When will an invoice be generated?

If Xero or QuickBooks Online is integrated, Practice Ignition will create an invoice as soon as the client accepts the proposal. Note: Even if the start date is in the future, an On Acceptance service within a proposal will create an invoice as soon as the proposal is accepted, regardless of the start date being in the future.

When will payment be collected?If payments is enabled in your PI account, the once-off payment collection schedule 

GSTR-1 Aster Billing

GSTR-1

GSTR-1 is a monthly or quarterly return to be filed by regular dealers, the return of which is divided into 13 sections. It is the base document upon which the entire compliance structure of GST is based.

For traders with turnover upto Rs 1.5 crore annually, GSTR-1 needs to be filed on quarterly basis while that for traders having turnover above that needs to be filed every month. The late fee for filing GSTR-1 is Rs 50 per day after the due date, and Rs 20, in case of nil returns.

Once GSTR-1 return is filed, a trader does not need to pay any tax immediately. The tax has to be paid at the time of filing GSTR-3B (until March 2018).

Composition dealers need not file GSTR-1. Such traders need to file GSTR-4 every quarter.

GSTR-1 is filed in FORM GSTR-1. The various details included in GSTR-1 are:

(i) Invoice wise details of Inter-State and Intra-State supplies made to registered persons and Inter-State supplies with invoice value more than two and a half lakh rupees made to unregistered persons.

(ii) Consolidated details of Intra-State supplies made to unregistered persons for each rate of tax and State wise Inter-State supplies with invoice value upto two and a half lakh rupees made to unregistered persons for each rate of tax.

(iii) Debit and Credit notes, if any, issued during the month for invoices issued previously.