GST-compliant cloud invoices, explained for Indian buyers
SAC 998314, CGST + SGST vs IGST, place-of-supply rules, and how to claim input credit on your cloud spend. A practical, vendor-neutral primer.
Cloud spend is one of those line items every Indian buyer encounters but few finance teams have a clean playbook for. This is a practical primer — vendor-neutral — on what a GST-compliant cloud invoice should look like, and what you should expect to do with it.
The SAC code
Cloud hosting falls under SAC 998314 — Information technology (IT) infrastructural services. Any cloud invoice you receive in India should carry this SAC. If your supplier issues it under a generic "IT services" code without 998314, ask them to fix it — it affects which input credit head you can claim against.
CGST + SGST vs IGST
The 18% GST on cloud is split based on the place of supply vs the supplier's state:
| Scenario | Tax components |
|---|---|
| Supplier in Karnataka, buyer in Karnataka | CGST 9% + SGST 9% |
| Supplier in Karnataka, buyer outside Karnataka | IGST 18% |
The total is the same — 18% — but the input credit lands in different ledgers, and your accounting software needs the right split.
What a clean invoice looks like
- Supplier name, address, GSTIN
- Buyer name, address, GSTIN (mandatory if you want to claim ITC)
- Invoice number with consistent prefix and sequence
- Date and place of supply
- SAC 998314 with HSN/SAC summary
- Taxable value, CGST/SGST or IGST line items, total in words
- Signed (digital signature or authorized signatory)
Input tax credit on cloud spend
Cloud is a business expense, and the 18% you pay is creditable against your output GST liability — provided the supplier has filed their GSTR-1 and the entry shows in your GSTR-2B. The rules of the game:
- Invoice must be in your registered GSTIN.
- Supplier must file their return (this is the one most buyers get burned on).
- You must use the service for business purposes (cloud almost always qualifies).
- Claim within the relevant financial year + 1 month, or by 30 November of the following FY — whichever is earlier.
What to watch for
The single biggest issue we see Indian buyers run into is suppliers based outside India who issue invoices that look like they include GST but are actually labelled "VAT" or have no GSTIN. Those are not creditable. If your provider is offshore, you are paying 18% with no offset — that is a real cost.
INR-native, India-registered providers (us included) close that gap. The 18% you pay flows straight back as input credit; the net cost of cloud is the ex-GST number on the plan page.