GST Billing for Restaurants — a Simple 2026 Guide

GST on restaurants, in plain words

Most standalone restaurants, cafés and dhabas charge 5% GST (2.5% CGST + 2.5% SGST) without input tax credit. Restaurants inside hotels with higher room tariffs fall under 18% with ITC. Small eateries can opt for the composition scheme and pay a flat rate on turnover instead.

Rates and thresholds change with GST Council decisions — treat this as orientation, and confirm your exact position with your CA before printing your first GST bill.

What a GST bill must show

• Your legal name, address and GSTIN
• A consecutive invoice number and date
• Item-wise description with quantity and value
• Taxable value and the CGST/SGST (or IGST) amounts shown separately
• Total amount payable — with UPI QR if you want faster payment

Where software saves you

Doing this by hand on a billing book invites two problems: arithmetic mistakes on the tax split, and a month-end nightmare assembling figures for GSTR filing. Good billing software prints the split correctly on every bill and gives your CA a clean, filing-ready summary.

If you are not GST-registered yet (below the registration threshold), you can still bill professionally — just without charging GST — and switch GST on in the software the day your registration arrives.

GST in Restaurant Saathi

Saathi prints proper GST bills with your GSTIN and the CGST/SGST split, works with or without GST registration (toggle it in settings), and the Pro tier adds filing-ready GST reports and CSV export for your CA. All of it works offline.