A GST bill for a café is not complicated once three questions are settled: do you need to charge GST at all, at what rate, and are your menu prices with GST or without it. Everything on the printed bill follows from those three. This guide goes through them in order, then through the bill itself, line by line.

One note before starting. Tax rules change and every business has its own details, so treat this as the working picture and confirm your own case with your CA once.

Do you need to charge GST?

Serving food is a service under GST, so the registration threshold for services applies:₹20 lakh of turnover a year in most states, and ₹10 lakh in a few north-eastern and hill states. Below that you do not have to register, and if you are not registered you cannot charge GST. Your bill is then a plain bill with no tax on it.

Plenty of small cafés register anyway, because a corporate client wants a GST invoice or a landlord asks for a GSTIN. Once you are registered, you charge GST on every bill, whatever your turnover.

Which rate

A standalone café or restaurant, one that is not inside a hotel charging ₹7,500 or more a night for a room, charges 5% GST without input tax credit. Inside your own state that 5% is split into 2.5% CGST and 2.5% SGST on the bill. "Without input tax credit" means you cannot set the GST you paid on rent, equipment or ingredients against the GST you collect. The 5% you collect is the 5% you pay.

Dine-in, takeaway and your own delivery are all the same 5%. Packaged items you resell as they are, a bottle of water or a sealed soft drink sold at MRP, can sit under a different rule. Ask your CA how to treat them before you add them to the menu.

The composition scheme

A café with turnover up to ₹1.5 crore can choose the composition scheme instead. You pay 5% of turnover as tax, with simpler returns, but you cannot collect GST from customers. You issue a bill of supply, not a tax invoice, and it has to say "composition taxable person, not eligible to collect tax on supplies". The same words go up on a board in the café. The bill shows no CGST or SGST lines at all.

Prices with GST, or GST added on top

You can do either, but the menu and the bill have to agree. There are two honest ways:

Inclusive. The menu says Cappuccino ₹180, the customer pays ₹180, and the bill works backwards: ₹171.43 of food and ₹8.57 of GST. Customers like this because the number they saw is the number they pay.
Added on top. The menu says ₹180 and clearly states that prices are exclusive of GST. The bill shows ₹180, then 2.5% CGST and 2.5% SGST, then ₹189.

What you cannot do is print inclusive prices on the menu and then add GST on the bill. And a service charge cannot be added to the bill by default. The consumer protection authority's guidelines from July 2022 say it is voluntary, so if you want one, ask.

What goes on the bill, line by line

Here is a correct bill for a registered café that prices inclusive of GST:

Your business name, address and GSTIN. The GSTIN is the one people check.
A bill number. Consecutive, never reused, unique within the financial year, and no longer than 16 characters. Many cafés restart at 1 every April with a year prefix, such as 26-27/0001.
Date, and the time if you like. The time helps when you check the day later.
Each item, quantity, rate and amount.
Taxable value, the total before tax. On an inclusive bill this is the total divided by 1.05.
CGST 2.5% and SGST 2.5%, each as its own amount.
The total, rounded to the rupee if you round, with the rounding shown.
The service code, SAC 996331, for restaurant and café services. Your CA will want it on the invoice.
How it was paid. Cash, UPI or card. Not required by GST, but it is how you check the drawer at night.

For a walk-in customer you do not need their name. If a business customer asks for a GST invoice, add their name, address and GSTIN so they can claim it. For a bill to an unregistered customer worth ₹50,000 or more, their name and address become required.

A worked example

Two masala chai at ₹30, a veg sandwich at ₹110 and a cold coffee at ₹140, priced inclusive:

Total: ₹310
Taxable value: ₹310 ÷ 1.05 = ₹295.24
CGST 2.5%: ₹7.38, SGST 2.5%: ₹7.38, together ₹14.76
₹295.24 + ₹14.76 = ₹310

Mistakes, voids and refunds

Never delete a bill or reuse its number. A gap in the numbers is the first thing anybody checking your books asks about. If a bill was wrong, void it with a reason and issue a new one. The voided bill stays in the record, marked void, with who did it and why. If money goes back to a customer after the day is closed, that is a credit note against the original bill.

Zomato and Swiggy orders are not your GST

Since January 2022 the delivery platforms collect and pay the 5% GST on food ordered through them. You do not charge it again, and you do not pay it on those orders. Keep those orders out of your own sales GST, and ask your CA how they want them shown in your returns. Readwhat the platforms really take from an order for the rest of that statement.

Doing it every day without thinking

All of this is arithmetic, and a till should do it. Set your GST rate once, say whether prices are inclusive, enter your GSTIN, and every bill comes out right. Retova'sFree Billing does exactly that on one device, free for shops billing up to ₹12 lakh a year: GST on the bill, numbered bills, voids with a reason and the day's takings by payment mode. When you want GST by day and files for your accountant, Cloud Billing is ₹299 a month, and every plan is on the pricing page.

How to make a GST bill for a café