Invoice format for chartered accountants
Accounting and audit services are billed under SAC 998222 at 18% GST. Keep statutory fees paid on the client behalf out of your taxable value by billing them as a pure agent recovery.
SAC codes you are likely to need
| SAC | Covers |
|---|---|
| 998222 | Accounting, auditing and bookkeeping services |
| 998231 | Corporate tax consulting and preparation services |
| 998232 | Individual tax preparation and planning services |
Typical rate: 18%
Lines this trade needs that a generic template misses
- Engagement and period, for example "GST returns, Q1 FY 2026-27"
- Statutory and filing fees recovered, shown separately as a pure agent recovery
- Out-of-pocket expenses, itemised
- Retainer versus one-off work, kept on separate lines
What goes wrong on these invoices
Including ROC fees, challan payments or statutory filing fees in your taxable value. Where you meet the pure agent conditions in Rule 33, those recoveries are excluded from value. Mixing them in inflates your turnover and makes you pay GST on money that was never your income.
Billing an annual engagement as one line in month twelve, which makes the time of supply argument harder than it needs to be.
Not naming the period on retainer invoices, which becomes a problem the first time a client queries what they paid for eighteen months ago.
Pure agent treatment under Rule 33 has conditions: you must have authorisation, the payment must be separately indicated, and you must recover exactly what you paid.
The particulars every tax invoice needs
Beyond the trade-specific lines above, Rule 46 of the CGST Rules requires your name, address and GSTIN; a consecutive serial number unique within the financial year and no longer than sixteen characters; the date; your customer's name, address and GSTIN where registered; the place of supply; a description of the supply; the SAC code; quantity and unit; taxable value; the rate and amount of tax split into CGST and SGST or IGST; whether tax is payable on reverse charge; and a signature.
The invoice generator lays all of that out and works out the tax split for you. The numbering tool checks your serial format against the sixteen-character limit.
Common questions
- Which SAC code applies to chartered accountants?
- 998222 covers accounting, auditing and bookkeeping services. Related codes you may need are 998231 for corporate tax consulting and preparation services, and 998232 for individual tax preparation and planning services. Classification is your accountant's call, not a template's.
- What GST rate applies?
- 18%. Rates are revised by notification from time to time, so confirm the rate in force on the date of supply against the CBIC rate finder rather than relying on any figure printed on a website.
- Do I need a GST registration to invoice?
- Not necessarily. Below the registration threshold you can issue a bill of supply rather than a tax invoice, and you do not charge GST. Once registered, a tax invoice with all the Rule 46 particulars becomes mandatory. The threshold differs for goods and services and for special category states.
- Can I use this format as-is?
- The structure and the fields, yes. The codes, rates and treatment need checking against your own facts. This page tells you what the invoice needs to carry; it cannot tell you what your specific supply is classified as.