CGST + SGST or IGST?

GST is a destination-based tax on consumption — it is collected where the customer is, not where you are. That single idea is behind everything else on this page, including which of CGST, SGST or IGST you charge.

It is not one tax but a set of components. Most professional services sit at 18%; what changes is how that 18% is divided, and who receives it. Your customer pays the same either way.

The short answer: if your customer is in the same state as you, the tax splits into CGST + SGST, half each. If they are in a different state, it is a single IGST line at the full rate.

At 18%, an intra-state invoice shows CGST 9% + SGST 9%. An inter-state invoice shows IGST 18%. Your customer pays the same amount; the difference is which government receives it, and which box it lands in when either of you files.

Place of supply is the state whose rules govern the transaction. For most services billed to a GST-registered business, it is the customer's registered state, not where the work was done and not where you happened to be sitting.

The first two digits of a GSTIN are the state code. 29ABCDE1234F1Z5 is Karnataka; 32ABCDE1234F1Z5 is Kerala. So once you have your customer's GSTIN, you already know the place of supply. There is nothing to look up.

This is why entering a client's GSTIN is worth doing once rather than typing a state by hand each time. A state typed as "Kerela" is not a spelling mistake; it is potentially the wrong tax on a filed document.

A service billed to a customer outside India is generally an export, and exports of services are zero-rated: you charge no GST. But zero-rated is not the same as exempt: to export without charging tax you normally need a Letter of Undertaking (LUT) on file. Without one, the usual route is to pay IGST and claim it back.

Whether an LUT applies to you, and whether a particular service qualifies as an export, depends on specifics this page cannot know. That part is worth a conversation with your accountant. It is a one-off piece of paperwork that changes what every future invoice looks like.

The 56th GST Council replaced the old four-slab structure with two, effective 22 September 2025. The 12% and 28% slabs were withdrawn and most of what sat in them moved down.

If you still have 12% or 28% saved against an item, it is out of date. Inceipt flags a withdrawn slab when you type it, rather than letting it through quietly.

An invoice is not limited to one rate. Rule 46 of the CGST Rules lists the rate of tax and the amount of tax among the particulars of the item table — next to HSN, description, quantity and taxable value. Billing consultancy at 18% and printed material at 5% on the same document is ordinary, and each line carries its own rate.

The summary then groups by rate, because that is how GSTR-1 is filed. A same-state invoice with both rates shows four heads: CGST 9% and SGST 9% on the 18% lines, CGST 2.5% and SGST 2.5% on the 5% lines. One blended figure would fit no box in the return.

If the supply is exempt, or you are under the composition scheme, you do not issue a tax invoice at all. Section 31(3)(c) with Rule 49 requires a Bill of Supply, and its particulars deliberately exclude the rate of tax and the amount of tax. A document headed "Tax Invoice" that charges no tax misstates what it is.

An export is not exempt. It is a taxable supply at 0% with input credit intact, so it stays a tax invoice and carries the LUT or bond declaration. Treating it as exempt gives away the credit on paper.

Section 170 of the CGST Act rounds the amount of tax payable to the nearest rupee. On ₹23,123 at 18% the tax is ₹4,162.14 — the figure you state is ₹4,162.

Round the total, not each rate band. Two bands of 54 paise and 15 paise round to nothing separately and to one rupee together, and it is the total that is payable.

• Using your own state as the place of supply. It is the customer's registration that decides, for most B2B services.
• Splitting IGST into halves. IGST is a single line at the full rate. Only CGST and SGST are halves of the rate.
• Treating a foreign customer as exempt rather than zero-rated. Both print 0%, but they are different things on a return, and only one preserves input-tax credit.