E-Invoice – Quick Reference Code (QR Code)

Types of QR Code

There are two different concepts of QR Codes when it comes to e-Invoicing
in India.

• QR Code for a Business-to-business B2B E-Invoice containing details of the Invoice (this article)
• Payment QR Code for a Business-to-consumer B2C Invoice (different article)

In order to issue an e-Invoice, a taxpayer has to prepare a valid invoice
in electronic format as per the e-Invoice schema
and submit it to a government authorized Invoice Registration
Portal (IRP).

The IRP will validate the invoice and also generate a QR code containing
the unique Invoice Reference Number along with some important
parameters of invoice and digital signature so that any person such as the
recipient or tax officer could verify the details of the invoice. The QR
Code contains important details of the invoice so that one can check those
details even without internet access. The QR code will consist of the
following e-invoice parameters:

• GSTIN of supplier
• GSTIN of Recipient
• Invoice number as given by Supplier
• Date of generation of invoice
• Invoice value (taxable value and gross tax)
• Number of line items.
• HSN Code of main item (the line item having highest taxable value)
• Unique Invoice Reference Number (IRN)

It is expected that suppliers include the QR Code while generating PDF
format of the invoice or printing the invoice on paper. However, there is
no legal requirement at present to display the QR code on the invoice.