Invoice format for freelance web developers
Web development is billed under SAC 998314 at 18% GST. Bill by milestone or by hour, and treat overseas clients as export of services rather than an ordinary inter-state supply.
SAC codes you are likely to need
| SAC | Covers |
|---|---|
| 998314 | Information technology design and development services |
| 998313 | IT consulting and support services |
| 998315 | Hosting and infrastructure provisioning services |
Typical rate: 18%
Lines this trade needs that a generic template misses
- Milestone name, so the client can match the line to the contract
- Hours and hourly rate where the work is billed on time rather than scope
- Period covered, for retainers
- Third-party costs passed through, listed separately from your fee
What goes wrong on these invoices
Billing an overseas client as an inter-state supply with IGST. Where the recipient is outside India, payment is in foreign exchange and the other conditions in section 2(6) of the IGST Act are met, it is an export of services and can be made without payment of tax under a Letter of Undertaking. Charging IGST when you did not have to leaves your client out of pocket and you with a refund claim.
Bundling hosting and domain renewals into the development fee. They are re-billed costs at possibly different rates, and lumping them in overstates your taxable service value.
Invoicing on project completion for work that spanned two financial years, which pushes the whole liability into one year and complicates both books.
If you invoice overseas clients, an LUT filed on the GST portal lets you export without paying IGST upfront. It is filed once per financial year.
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 freelance web developers?
- 998314 covers information technology design and development services. Related codes you may need are 998313 for it consulting and support services, and 998315 for hosting and infrastructure provisioning 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.