SAC Code for Consultancy and Professional Services

There is no code for "consultancy". The service accounting codes classify professional work by field, not by the fact that advice was given, and a firm that bills everything to one line is usually billing at least three different services under it. Management consulting is 998311. IT consulting is 998313. Tax consulting is 998231, in a different heading altogether. The qualification on your letterhead does not decide the code; the engagement does.

Two headings carry almost all professional work

Heading 9982 covers legal and accounting services. Heading 9983 covers other professional, technical and business services — which in practice means everything else a professional firm does. Between them they hold management consulting, IT, engineering, architecture, design, advertising, market research, audit, bookkeeping, payroll, tax and legal work. Our SAC code reference covers the wider structure of Chapter 99.

Heading 9983: management, IT, engineering and design

Heading 9982: legal, accounting and tax

Picking between 998311, 998312 and 998313

These three sit next to each other and cover most of what gets called consulting:

• 998311 — advice on how the business is run: strategy, finance, HR, marketing, operations, supply chain. Also the code where you are managing a function rather than only advising on it.
• 998312 — broader business consulting and public relations, where the work does not fit a named management discipline.
• 998313 — advice and support on technology: architecture reviews, systems selection, implementation advisory, support contracts. If you are building the thing rather than advising on it, move to 998314.

Where an engagement genuinely spans both — a digital transformation programme that includes both operating model design and system implementation — code the dominant supply and keep the scope document. Composite supply rules follow the principal supply, but only if you can identify it.

Reverse charge on legal services

Legal services supplied by an individual advocate, including a senior advocate, or by a firm of advocates, to a business entity are a named entry in the reverse charge notification: the recipient pays the tax, and the advocate does not charge it. The entry carries conditions and exclusions, including in relation to business entities below a specified turnover, and it has been amended.

Two practical consequences. First, a law firm's invoice legitimately carries no GST — that is not an error to query. Second, the recipient must actually self-assess and pay it; the credit that follows is available only once the tax has been discharged. Our explainer on the reverse charge mechanism covers the mechanics, and the current text of the notification is on the CBIC GST portal.

Exporting professional services

Consulting, engineering, design and IT firms serving foreign clients are usually making zero-rated supplies. Section 2(6) of the IGST Act sets the conditions — supplier in India, recipient outside India, place of supply outside India, payment received in convertible foreign exchange, and the two parties not merely establishments of the same person. You can export under a letter of undertaking without paying tax, or pay IGST and claim a refund.

The trap is the intermediary rule in Section 13(8) of the IGST Act. If you are arranging or facilitating a supply between two other persons rather than supplying on your own account, the place of supply is your location, the supply is domestic, and it is not an export. Marketing, sourcing and agency arrangements fall into this repeatedly. Our guide to place of supply rules sets out the framework.

Invoicing a professional practice

1. Code per engagement, not per client. The same client can receive three differently coded services in the same month.
2. Describe the work. "Professional fees for the month" supports no code at all. "Statutory audit — FY 2025-26" supports 998221 without further explanation.
3. Report at the digit level required by your aggregate annual turnover — see the digit rules.
4. Verify the client's GSTIN before the first invoice. Professional firms bill in arrears against long retainers, and an invoice raised to a wrong or cancelled GSTIN denies the client credit and delays your payment. A check at engagement acceptance — see our onboarding verification guide — takes seconds and removes the whole class of problem.

Frequently asked questions