From 1st April 2021, e-invoicing will apply to the GST registered persons whose aggregate turnover in any of the financial years between 2017-18 to 2019-20 has exceeded 50 crores. There are some exceptions: Special Economic Zones (SEZ) units, insurance, banking, financial institutions, NBFCs, GTA, passenger transportation service and sale of movie tickets.
E-Invoicing FAQs – Clear Your Doubts
An e-Invoice once generated, cannot be partially cancelled. Only a full cancellation is allowed. And this cancellation must be reported to the IRN within 24 hours. Any cancellation after that, cannot be done on the IRN and has to be done manually on the GST portal before the returns are filed.
Amendment of e-invoices is allowed on the GST portal as per the provisions of the GST law while reporting of Form GSTR-1.
An e-invoice can be generated using any of the following ways:
- Offline tool
- Using GST Suvidha Provider
- Through Direct Integration
- Via API integration with sister concern GSTIN
- Using E-way Bill API credentials
No, e-invoices must be generated on the existing ERP software that is being used. The ERP then will upload these invoices to the IRP for generation of IRN.
The following documents are covered under e-invoicing:
- Invoices by the Supplier
- Credit Notes by the Supplier
- Debit Notes by the Recipient
- Any other document as notified under GST law to be reported as an e-invoice by the creator of the document
Yes, e-invoicing is also applicable to reverse charge mechanism (RCM) transactions as well.
The maximum number of line items allowed per e-Invoice is 100.
Yes, a company can provide for the same in their accounting/billing software, however, the logo is not sent to the IRP.
The prerequisites for the generation of e-invoices are:
- The person generating an e-invoice should be registered on the GST portal and e-invoice or e-way bill portal.
- There should be a valid document to report, such as an invoice, debit note, or credit note available with him.
If the taxpayer is generating e-invoices in bulk, then he should have a valid JSON file as per the e-invoice schema or should have integrated his ERP system with APIs.
You can verify the correctness of an e-invoice by uploading the signed JSON into the e-invoice system and by selecting the option ‘Verify Signed Invoice’ under the ‘Search’ option. Another option is to download the QR Code Verify app and verify the QR code printed on the invoice.
Yes, details of invoices can be entered in bulk in an excel based bulk convertor tool, available on the e-invoice portal. Thereafter, the JSON file must be generated and uploaded on the e-invoice portal after logging into it. The IRN and QR code shall be generated in the form of a response JSON file.
On the IRP, the data will remain for 24 hours. However, once an invoice has been registered and validated, it will be updated into the GST portal in the relevant GST return where it will be available thereafter.
A time limit is not yet notified for reporting invoices on the IRP. However, an invoice is considered valid only after its registration on the Invoice Registration Portal (IRP). Once uploaded on the IRP, the same will be registered immediately on a real-time basis.
An e-invoice will be uploaded into the relevant GST return after it has been validated and registered by the IRP. After the validation has been done, it will be visible to the taxpayer for viewing and editing in the GSTR-1 return. The data in the invoices will be pre-populated into the relevant tables of the tax returns without the need for fresh data entry.
No, invoices continue to be generated in the accounting/billing software being used currently. The invoice must conform to the e-invoicing standard and include the mandatory information as per the e-invoice schema.
As every electronic invoice is verified and authenticated by the IRP on behalf of GSTN, they are legally valid.
Yes, e-invoice compliance is mandatory for export transactions as well. The e-invoice system allows the declaration of export invoices as well as zero-rated supplies.
No, e-invoicing is not applicable for import transactions/bills of entry.
Yes, a supplier as well as the buyer can print the e-invoice using the QR code on the signed e-invoice returned by the IRP.
As of now, e-invoice provisions are not applicable to B2C transactions.
The QR code contains below data
- GSTIN of supplier and recipient
- Invoice Number
- Date of generation the of invoice
- Invoice value
- Number of line items
- HSN code of the item with the highest taxable value
- Unique IRN
- Date of generation the of the IRN
All businesses need to issue e-invoices using the same e-invoice schema laid down by the GSTN. The schema has mandatory and non-mandatory fields. All taxpayers are required to fill mandatory fields. Specific businesses can use non-mandatory fields as per their requirements.
No, it is optional as the IRN is already embedded in the QR code printed on the e-invoice.
Yes, you will have to do a separate GSTIN based registration on the e-invoice portal. However, the taxpayers who are registered on the e-way bill portal need not take separate registration on the e-invoice portal.
The maximum number of sub-users that can be created for each place of business is 10. For every additional place of business, 10 more sub-users can be added.
No, it is not compulsory to assign sub-users. The decision regarding the number of sub-users, if any, must be taken by the taxpayer himself based on his business needs.
Reports can only be generated for a particular day to ensure that the system does not take any additional burden and continues to perform smoothly.