Tax-inclusive menu prices: how to calculate the GST inside ₹240

To calculate GST from an inclusive price, multiply the price by 100 and divide by 100 plus the GST rate: that gives the taxable value, and the rest is GST. A ₹240 thali at 5% has a taxable value of ₹228.57 and ₹11.43 of GST inside it, not ₹12.

The formula is the easy part. What most calculators skip is what happens to the paise: ₹11.43 does not split evenly into CGST and SGST, rounding each line can give a different total from rounding the whole bill, and the bill still has to come out to a round rupee. This guide works through each one with real numbers, for a home or cloud kitchen that bills its own orders.

How do you calculate GST from an inclusive price?

Use this formula:

Taxable value = inclusive price × 100 ÷ (100 + GST rate)

GST = inclusive price − taxable value

For a ₹240 thali at 5%:

1. ₹240 × 100 = ₹24,000
2. ₹24,000 ÷ 105 = ₹228.5714…
3. Round to the paisa: taxable value ₹228.57
4. GST = ₹240.00 − ₹228.57 = ₹11.43

This isn't a rule of thumb. Rule 35 of the CGST Rules sets the same formula for "the value of supply ... inclusive of" tax. It writes it as the tax amount directly: value inclusive of taxes × tax rate ÷ (100 + sum of tax rates).

Which rate goes in? Since 22 Sep 2025, GST has two main slabs, 5% and 18%, plus a 40% rate for a few items (56th GST Council press release). Restaurant service, which covers most cooked food a kitchen sells, is 5% without input tax credit. That same release confirms a stand-alone restaurant cannot choose 18% with credit instead. Many top-ranking calculators still offer 12% and 28% as everyday slabs. For most goods and services those slabs went away in September 2025.

Try your own menu prices here. It uses the same rounding as the rest of this guide.

GST inside a menu price

Menu price, including GST (₹)

GST rate

5%18%40%

Intra-state sale: the GST is split into CGST and SGST.

Taxable value

₹228.57

CGST 2.5%

₹5.71

SGST 2.5%

₹5.72

Total GST

₹11.43

The GST is an odd number of paise, so SGST carries the extra paisa and CGST + SGST still equals the total.

Why is 5% of ₹240 not the GST?

Because the 5% is charged on the food, and ₹240 is the food plus the tax already.

If the food is worth ₹228.57, 5% of it is ₹11.43, and the two add up to ₹240. If you take 5% of ₹240 instead, you get ₹12. That would mean the food is worth ₹228, and ₹12 on ₹228 is 5.26%, not 5%.

The customer pays ₹240 either way, so the mistake doesn't show at the time. It shows on the bill: a ₹240 thali reports 57 paise more GST than you actually collected, and your sales figure reads 57 paise low. Over a year of orders, that adds up to a gap your CA has to explain.

How do you split ₹11.43 into CGST and SGST?

For a sale within your own state, the 5% is charged as 2.5% CGST and 2.5% SGST. Half of ₹11.43 is ₹5.715, and a bill can't show half a paisa. One head has to be ₹5.71 and the other ₹5.72.

There are two reasonable ways to get there, and they differ by a paisa:

The second line follows Rule 35 head by head: ₹240 × 2.5 ÷ 105 = ₹5.714…, which rounds to ₹5.71 for CGST and again for SGST. The taxable value is then ₹240 − ₹11.42 = ₹228.58.

Both bills add up to ₹240.00, and both are honest. Rule 35 gives the formula but says nothing about rounding to the paisa. Section 170 of the CGST Act rounds the tax you pay to the government to the nearest rupee, so a paisa on one bill never reaches your return as a paisa. What matters is that:

• CGST + SGST equals the GST on the bill, exactly.
• Taxable value + GST equals what the customer paid, exactly.
• Your billing software uses the same rule on every bill, so your reports match your invoices.

Does rounding per line or per bill change the GST?

It can, by a paisa or two. Take a direct order for three different rolls, each ₹100 including 5% GST.

Per line: each roll is ₹100 × 100 ÷ 105 = ₹95.238…, rounded to ₹95.24, with ₹4.76 of GST. Three lines give a taxable value of ₹285.72 and GST of ₹14.28.

Per bill: ₹300 × 100 ÷ 105 = ₹285.714…, rounded to ₹285.71, with ₹14.29 of GST.

Neither is wrong. Per-line rounding has one practical advantage: each line on the invoice shows its own taxable value, and the totals are just those lines added up. Rule 46 asks the invoice to show the taxable value and the tax by head, so a reader checking your bill can add the lines and land on the total. A bill rounded only at the end can show lines that don't add up to its own total, and that is the kind of thing that gets questioned.

Bills with a discount add one more step: the discount has to come off each line before the tax is worked out. If the bill mixes items at 5% and 18%, our guide on splitting a discount across different GST rates shows how to do it to the paisa.

When does a bill need a round-off line?

With inclusive prices, usually never. A ₹240 thali comes to ₹228.57 + ₹11.43 = ₹240.00, so the total is already a whole rupee.

Round-off appears when the tax is added on top. Say one dish is marked "+ GST" at ₹229, at 5%:

• GST = ₹229 × 5 ÷ 100 = ₹11.45, split as ₹5.72 CGST and ₹5.73 SGST
• Total = ₹240.45
• Rounded to the nearest rupee: ₹240.00, with a round-off of −₹0.45

Rounding the total to a whole rupee is common practice, not a GST rule for invoices: section 170 of the CGST Act rounds the tax, interest and other sums payable under the Act, not the customer's bill. If you do round, show it as its own "Round off" line. The taxable value and GST on the bill stay exactly as worked out; only the amount payable changes. Don't absorb the 45 paise into the tax line, or the tax on the bill stops matching 5% of the taxable value.

Can a menu show only prices including GST?

Yes, as far as GST law goes. Rule 35 exists precisely because prices are often quoted inclusive of tax. What the law asks for is on the bill, not the menu: section 33 of the CGST Act requires you to "prominently indicate" on the tax invoice "the amount of tax which shall form part of the price". And Rule 46 lists the taxable value and the tax by rate and head among the invoice fields.

For a delivery kitchen, inclusive prices are also simply clearer. The customer sees ₹240 on your WhatsApp menu and pays ₹240, with no surprise tax added at the end.

Two things this does not change:

• Only a registered business can collect GST. If you have no GSTIN, your ₹240 is just ₹240: no tax line, no "tax invoice" heading. See whether you need to register in GST registration for home kitchens on Swiggy and Zomato.
• Service charge is separate. The Department of Consumer Affairs said in its 2017 guidelines that service charge in hotels and restaurants is optional and at the customer's discretion (PIB). It isn't part of the GST maths here.

App orders are different too. On orders placed through Swiggy or Zomato, the app pays the 5% on restaurant service, so the inclusive-price split on your own bill is for orders you bill directly. How to keep both kinds in one set of books is in Swiggy, Zomato and direct orders in one set of books.

How does Pocket Journal for Food work out the GST?

Every price in Pocket Journal for Food is treated as GST-inclusive by default, the way most kitchen menus are written. You can switch the shop default, or mark a single dish as "+ GST" if that one item is priced before tax.

When you add dishes to an order, the app does the arithmetic in whole paise, never in fractions of a rupee:

• Inclusive dishes: taxable value = price × 100 ÷ (100 + rate), rounded to the paisa, and the GST is whatever is left. So ₹240 at 5% always gives ₹228.57 and ₹11.43.
• The odd paisa: CGST is half the GST rounded down, and SGST takes the rest. ₹11.43 prints as ₹5.71 CGST and ₹5.72 SGST, and the two always add up to the tax.
• Per line: each line of the order is worked out on its own, and the bill totals are those lines added up. The tax summary on the bill is grouped by rate, so a bill with 5% and 18% items shows both.
• Round-off: the amount payable is rounded to the nearest rupee, and a "Round off" line appears only when it isn't zero.

The sum runs once, in one place, when the order is saved. The bill image you share, the PDF and your reports all read those stored figures, so the bill a customer sees on WhatsApp matches your sales report to the paisa. If a bill went out wrong anyway, see how to cancel a wrong GST invoice.