Regulatory & Tax

Place of Supply (GST)

GST rule that determines which state/UT gets the tax on a transaction — drives whether CGST+SGST or IGST applies.

Place of Supply is the GST framework's way of allocating tax revenue between states. For goods: usually the destination state (where shipped). For services: typically the recipient's location, with exceptions (passenger transport, accommodation, restaurant — supplier's location).

Intra-state: place of supply = supplier's state → CGST + SGST. Inter-state: place of supply ≠ supplier's state → IGST. Wrong place-of-supply = wrong tax type collected = customer can't claim ITC + supplier may face audit.

For Indian D2C ecom shipping pan-India, place-of-supply is determined per order (shipping address, not billing). Most order-management systems get this right; manual invoicing is where errors creep in.

India context

Indian D2C brands operating in NCR (Delhi-Haryana-UP) face place-of-supply complexity daily — customer in Delhi gets IGST, in Gurugram (Haryana) gets IGST, in Noida (UP) gets IGST, all from the same warehouse. Single bug = 3 different tax errors.

Examples

  • A Karnataka-based seller ships to Mumbai → place of supply = Maharashtra → IGST 18%.
  • Same seller ships to Bangalore → place of supply = Karnataka → CGST 9% + SGST 9%.

FAQ

What if I ship to a different state than billing?

Place of supply = shipping state for goods. Bill might say one state but tax follows shipment.

How is place of supply determined for SaaS?

Default: recipient's registered address. If recipient is unregistered: place where they are located (usually billing address).

What are 'special place of supply' rules?

Specific categories (hotel, transport, telecom) have their own rules. Most SMBs don't deal with these — but check before invoicing for those categories.

Related concepts

GSTGSTINCGSTSGSTIGSTGSTR-1

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