Travel agency GST invoice format: template plus SAC codes

If you've searched "gst invoice format for tour operator" and landed on yet another accounting-software page that shows you a generic services bill, you already know the problem. Your invoice isn't generic. It has to carry the right SAC code, the right tax treatment for a 5% package versus an 18% service fee, and, for outbound tours, a TCS line that has nothing to do with GST at all.

This post skips the rate debate (that's covered in detail in our post on choosing 5% or 18% for a tour package) and gives you the document itself: every mandatory field, a specimen invoice you can copy into Word or Excel, and the five mistakes that get corporate clients calling to say their accounts team has rejected your bill.

What Rule 46 actually requires on your invoice

Rule 46 of the CGST Rules lists roughly 16 fields a tax invoice must carry, and missing even one is the single biggest reason a corporate client's accounts team kicks your invoice back. The core ones for a travel agency: your GSTIN and the client's GSTIN (if registered), a consecutive serial number for the invoice, the date, place of supply, HSN/SAC code, taxable value, GST rate and amount split by CGST/SGST or IGST, and a signature (source).

Two fields agents routinely skip: place of supply, and reverse-charge indication when it applies. Both are mandatory even on a small package invoice, not just on big B2B bills.

The specimen invoice: package sold at 5%, no ITC

This is the format for a standard holiday package where you've opted for the 5% GST rate. Remember: the 5% rate comes with no input tax credit, so you can't claim GST back on hotel, transport, or other supplier bills tied to this invoice (source).

TAX INVOICE

Wanderline Holidays Pvt Ltd                          Invoice No: WH/2026-27/0142
GSTIN: 27ABCDE1234F1Z5                                Invoice Date: 12-07-2026
Address: 4th Floor, Andheri East, Mumbai 400069       Place of Supply: Mumbai (27)

Bill To:
Rohan Mehta
GSTIN: (unregistered, individual client)
Address: Pune, Maharashtra

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Description                          SAC       Qty    Rate       Amount
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bali package tour, 5N/6D,             998552     2    ₹42,500     ₹85,000
land + hotel + transfers,
per person twin sharing
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                     Taxable Value: ₹85,000
                                                     CGST @ 2.5%:    ₹2,125
                                                     SGST @ 2.5%:    ₹2,125
                                                     Total Invoice:  ₹89,250

Note: GST charged at 5% under the tour operator scheme. No input tax
credit claimed on this supply.

Terms: 50% advance, balance 30 days before departure.
Authorised Signatory: ____________________

Everything after "Total Invoice" is the annotation line most agents forget: a one-line note stating you've opted for the 5% scheme and aren't passing ITC. It costs nothing to add and it pre-empts the question a sharp corporate client's finance team will ask anyway.

The specimen invoice: service fee billed at 18%

If you charge a client a planning fee, a visa-assistance fee, or a standalone booking fee, that's a taxable service at 18%, and here ITC does apply on your inputs.

TAX INVOICE

Wanderline Holidays Pvt Ltd                          Invoice No: WH/2026-27/0143
GSTIN: 27ABCDE1234F1Z5                                Invoice Date: 12-07-2026
Address: 4th Floor, Andheri East, Mumbai 400069       Place of Supply: Bengaluru (29)

Bill To:
Kestrel Analytics Pvt Ltd
GSTIN: 29XYZAB5678K1Z2
Address: Bengaluru, Karnataka

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Description                          SAC       Qty    Rate       Amount
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trip planning and itinerary           998555     1    ₹15,000     ₹15,000
design fee, corporate offsite
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                     Taxable Value: ₹15,000
                                                     IGST @ 18%:     ₹2,700
                                                     Total Invoice:  ₹17,700

Reverse Charge Applicable: No
Terms: Due on receipt.
Authorised Signatory: ____________________

Notice the tax type changes: this client is in Bengaluru and your registered office is in Mumbai, so it's an interstate supply and IGST applies, not CGST/SGST. Getting this split wrong is a common reason invoices bounce back from a client's GST reconciliation.

SAC codes: 998552 vs 998555, and why the difference matters

Two SAC codes cover almost everything a travel agency bills: 998552 covers reservation services for accommodation, cruises, and package tours, while 998555 covers tour operator services under Group 99855 (source). Use 998552 when you're booking or reserving something on the client's behalf (a hotel, a cruise cabin, a packaged holiday). Use 998555 when you're billing for the tour-operator service itself, such as a planning fee, a group tour management fee, or a composite tour-operator margin.

Mixing these up doesn't change your tax liability much, but it does matter to a corporate client's GST software, which flags SAC-description mismatches during reconciliation, and to a GST officer during a departmental review who is checking whether your invoicing is consistent month to month.

Careful: Don't invent a third SAC code for "miscellaneous travel services." If a line item doesn't fit 998552 or 998555, it's probably a different taxable supply (say, forex conversion, or insurance commission) that needs its own line with its own code, not a bucket entry.

Where the TCS line goes on an outbound package invoice

TCS on overseas tour packages is a flat 2% per remittance with no minimum threshold, effective from 1 April 2026 under Budget 2026 (FY 2025-26 carried a slab: 5% up to ₹10 lakh and 20% above that per traveller per year) (source). As of July 2026, every outbound package payment attracts this 2% at collection.

TCS is not a GST line and it's not part of your taxable value, so it never sits inside the GST computation box on the invoice. It goes as a separate line below your invoice total, showing the amount you'll additionally collect and remit against the client's PAN:

                                                     Total Invoice:  ₹89,250
                                                     TCS @ 2% (Sec 206C):
                                                                     ₹1,785
                                                     Amount Payable: ₹91,035

The client claims this TCS as a credit against their income tax liability when filing their return, which is exactly why the TCS refund process is something worth explaining to clients directly rather than assuming they'll figure it out from the invoice alone. Confirm the current TCS rate with your CA before every quarter, since this rate has changed recently.

Five mistakes that block the corporate client's ITC

1. Missing or wrong client GSTIN. If the invoice doesn't carry the client's correct GSTIN, their ITC claim on that invoice fails at reconciliation, full stop.
2. SAC code left blank or generic. An invoice without an SAC code, or one using an unrelated code copied from a template, gets rejected by finance teams before it even reaches the GST filing stage.
3. No split between CGST/SGST and IGST. Billing intrastate as IGST (or the reverse) is one of the fastest ways to have an invoice bounced back for correction.
4. 5% package invoice with an ITC claim implied. If you've opted for the 5% no-ITC rate, don't leave language on the invoice that suggests credit is available. It creates a mismatch the client's auditor will catch.
5. Serial number not consecutive. Skipping or reusing invoice numbers (common when agents raise a quick "quotation-turned-invoice" outside their usual series) is a red flag Rule 46 specifically targets, and it can also trigger unwanted attention if your invoicing pattern looks irregular during a review.

Sort these five and the invoice format above will pass almost every corporate finance check without a follow-up email.

Common questions

Is there a GST invoice format for a travel agency bill in Word or Excel?

Yes: copy the specimen invoice tables in this post directly into a Word document or an Excel sheet, keeping every labelled field (GSTIN, invoice number, place of supply, SAC code, tax split, TCS line) in the same order. There's no single official government template file. What's mandatory is the set of fields under Rule 46, not any particular software or layout, so a plain Word or Excel version that includes all of them is fully compliant.

What happens if my invoice format is wrong?

Reports suggest a non-compliant invoice can attract a penalty of up to ₹10,000 per instance under Section 122 of the CGST Act, though this figure varies by case and officer discretion; confirm the current position with your CA before treating it as a fixed number (source). The more immediate cost, in practice, is a rejected corporate invoice sitting unpaid while your client's accounts team waits for a corrected one.

The short version

• Rule 46 needs roughly 16 fields on every GST invoice: GSTIN, consecutive serial number, date, place of supply, SAC code, taxable value, tax split, and signature among them.
• Use SAC 998552 for reservation/package-tour bookings and SAC 998555 for tour-operator service fees; don't invent a third code.
• A 5% package invoice carries no ITC and should say so; an 18% service-fee invoice allows ITC on your inputs.
• Outbound package invoices carry a separate 2% TCS line below the GST total, not inside it (as of July 2026, flat rate, no threshold).
• Get the client GSTIN, SAC code, and CGST/SGST vs IGST split right, or expect the invoice bounced back before it's paid.
• Rules and rates move; check the current GST rate card and confirm figures with your CA before finalising a new invoice series.