Every GST bill needs a code, and tailoring sits awkwardly between two of them. What the SAC code for tailoring is, when you need an HSN instead, and the one distinction that decides which.
Why a Tailoring Shop Has Two Possible Codes
Most trades have one code and never think about it again. A tailoring shop has two, and which one belongs on the bill depends on something that changes from order to order.
The distinction is simple to state and easy to get wrong in practice. If the customer brings the cloth and you stitch it, you have sold a <b>service</b> — that takes a SAC code, the code used for services. If you bought the cloth, made the garment and sold the finished thing, you have sold <b>goods</b> — that takes an HSN code, the code used for products.
Same shop, same machine, same karigar. Different code on the bill, and potentially a different rate.
The Two Sides, in Plain Terms
Stitching the customer’s cloth — a service
She brings three metres of cotton and you make a kurti. You never owned the cloth. What you sold was labour and skill, and the bill is a service bill carrying a SAC code. This is most of what a neighbourhood tailoring shop does.
Selling a finished garment — goods
You bought the cloth, cut it, stitched it and sold the garment off the rack or made to a standard size. You owned the material and sold a product, so the bill carries an HSN code for that garment.
Job work for another business — a service, but its own kind
A boutique or an exporter sends you cut pieces to stitch. The cloth was never yours and the customer is a business, not a person. This is job work, it is a service, and it has its own treatment — the rate is often different from retail stitching.
Alteration and repair — a service
Taking in a waist or shortening a trouser is labour on something the customer already owns. A service bill, like stitching.
Where the Codes Come From
Neither code is something you invent. Both are national lists, and your code is read off the list rather than chosen.
Service codes for tailoring sit in the manufacturing-services group — the family of codes covering work done on someone else’s material, with wearing apparel having its own entry. Garment HSN codes sit in the textiles chapters, and they split finely: knitted and woven are different chapters, and within each, the garment type and sometimes the fabric decide the heading.
Two practical consequences. A shop that only stitches customer cloth needs <b>one</b> code and can print it on the bill and forget it. A shop that also sells finished garments needs several, because each garment type has its own.
What the Bill Has to Show
Once you are registered, a tax invoice is not a free-form bill. It has a required shape, and the code is only one line of it.
Your GSTIN, and the customer’s if they have one
A business customer who wants to claim the tax must have their GSTIN on the invoice. Without it they cannot claim, and they will come back and ask for a reissue.
An unbroken invoice number
One series for the financial year, no gaps, no reuse. A cancelled bill is kept and marked cancelled, not thrown away.
The SAC or HSN code against each line
If one bill has both stitching and a garment sold off the rack, those are two lines with two different codes.
The rate and the amount, shown separately
Split into CGST and SGST for a sale inside your own state, or IGST for one outside it. A single combined figure is not a compliant invoice.
The place of supply
This decides whether the sale is inside or outside the state, and therefore which of the two splits above applies.
The Mistakes That Cost Money
None of these are exotic. They are what actually turns up when a small shop’s books are looked at for the first time.
One code for everything
A shop that sells finished garments and also stitches, billing both under the service code, has misdescribed half its sales. The simplest fix is to stop treating them as one business on the bill.
Treating job work as retail stitching
Work done for another business on their material is its own category. Billing it as ordinary retail stitching can put the wrong rate on a large and regular stream of income.
Leaving the code off a small bill
The requirement follows your turnover, not the size of the bill. If you have to show the code, you have to show it on all of them.
A bill series that restarts
Starting again at 1 in the middle of the year, or keeping a separate book per branch with overlapping numbers, is the first thing a query finds.
What to Ask Your Accountant
Codes, rates and thresholds move, and a figure printed here would go stale. Take this list to a local chartered accountant once, write the answers on a card, and tape the card inside the counter.
Which single code covers my stitching?
For a shop that only works on customer cloth, this is the one code you will use on nearly every bill.
Which codes do the garments I sell fall under?
Only if you sell finished garments. Ask for the specific headings for the two or three types you actually sell, not the whole chapter.
What rate applies to each, and does any depend on price?
Some garment rates have historically depended on the sale value. Ask whether that applies to what you sell, and at what figure.
Is my job work treated differently?
Ask specifically, naming the kind of business that sends you work. This is the question most likely to be answered wrongly if you guess.
Am I better on the composition scheme?
A cash, walk-in shop often is. A shop with business customers who want to claim the tax usually is not, because composition does not let you issue a claimable invoice.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the SAC code for tailoring?
Tailoring falls under the service codes for manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others, with wearing apparel having its own entry. Get the exact code confirmed by a chartered accountant once, then print it on your bills — it will not change often.
Do I need both SAC and HSN?
Only if you both stitch customer cloth and sell finished garments. Stitching is a service and takes a SAC; a garment you made from your own cloth is goods and takes an HSN. A shop that only stitches needs one code.
Does a small tailoring shop have to show the code on every bill?
If you are registered and above the turnover at which the code is required, yes — on every tax invoice, regardless of the bill amount. Below the registration threshold you are not issuing tax invoices at all.
Is alteration work the same code as stitching?
Both are services performed on cloth the customer owns, so they sit on the service side rather than the goods side. Confirm the exact entry with your accountant, as alteration is sometimes listed separately.
Where Juvee Helps
The code, the rate and the split go on the bill the same way every time, and the invoice series runs unbroken through the year without anybody minding it. That is what GST billing for tailors is built for. Juvee’s Basic plan is free with no time limit, and paid plans start at ₹10,190 a year including GST — see the pricing page. Codes and rates change: confirm yours with a chartered accountant rather than from any blog post, including this one.