Timing, and whether GST law requires it. A payment receipt acknowledges money received against a tax invoice you have already issued — the supply happened, the tax was charged on the invoice, and the receipt simply records settlement. A receipt voucher is required when you receive an advance BEFORE the supply: Section 31(3)(d) of the CGST Act mandates it, and CGST Rule 50 prescribes what it must contain. One is a commercial courtesy you can design as you like; the other is a statutory document with prescribed particulars.

Rule 50 of the CGST Rules requires: your name, address and GSTIN; a consecutive serial number not exceeding sixteen characters; the date of issue; the recipient’s name, address and GSTIN or UIN where registered; a description of the goods or services; the amount of the advance taken; the rate of tax and the amount of tax charged, split into central, State, integrated or Union territory tax and cess; the place of supply with the State name and code for inter-State supply; whether tax is payable on reverse charge; and the signature of the supplier or an authorised representative.

It depends on what you supply, and this is one of the most widely misunderstood points in GST. For a supply of SERVICES, GST is payable when you receive the advance. For a supply of GOODS it is not: Notification 66/2017-Central Tax, dated 15 November 2017, removed the requirement to pay tax on advances for goods for every registered person except those under the composition scheme. What did NOT change is the document — Section 31(3)(d) still requires a receipt voucher for an advance either way. So a goods supplier taking an advance issues the voucher but pays no tax at that point; the tax arises on the invoice when the goods are supplied.

The provisos to Rule 50 cover it, and they matter mainly for services, since advances on goods do not attract tax at receipt. Where the rate of tax is not determinable at the time of receiving the advance, tax is to be paid at eighteen per cent. Where the nature of the supply — inter-State or intra-State — is not determinable, it is treated as an inter-State supply. These are fallbacks for genuine uncertainty, not a menu; if you know what you are supplying, use the correct rate.

No. ReadyBooks issues payment receipts — acknowledging money received against an invoice that has already been raised — and that is what the template on this page shows. It does not currently generate a Rule 50 receipt voucher for advances received before supply, so if you routinely take advances against future supplies, that document needs to come from elsewhere for now. We would rather tell you that here than have you discover it after signing up.

No. Where the receipt acknowledges settlement of an invoice already issued, the GST was charged on that invoice — charging it again on the receipt would double-count it. The receipt records the movement of money, not a supply. Tax can attach at the point of receipt only in the advance case, and then only for services — see the question on advances above.

There is no GST obligation to issue one for settlement of an invoice, but it is worth doing. It closes the loop for the customer, gives both sides a reference tying the bank entry to the invoice, and makes a part-payment unambiguous. For cash payments in particular, a numbered receipt is the only clean evidence that money changed hands.