GST on Event Management Services in 2026: Rate, SAC, Pure Agent Rules and Worked Examples

Event managers in India bill for everything from a ₹50,000 birthday party to a ₹5 crore product launch, and each bill bundles very different costs: the venue, food, décor, sound and light, artists, travel and the organiser's own fee. GST treats some of those at 5%, most at 18% and a few as exempt, and the result depends on how the contract is written. This guide is for event and wedding planners pricing their packages, and for companies and families checking the tax on an event bill. It covers the 2026 rate and SAC code, bundled packages, the pure-agent route for pass-through costs, venue and mandap rent, place of supply, sponsorship under reverse charge, tickets, and worked rupee examples, all checked against the rate notifications and the IGST Act in October 2026.

Quick answer

Event management is taxed at 18% under SAC 998596 (heading 9985, support services). When an organiser sells one bundled package, the whole package is normally taxed at 18% — including the catering — and the organiser can claim credit on what it buys. Costs paid as a pure agent of the client under rule 33 can be kept out of the taxable value.

• Sponsorship paid by a company or firm is taxed under reverse charge — the sponsor pays 18%

• Venue hire alone is 18%; food plus venue from the same supplier is 5% (no input tax credit) outside specified premises

• Registered client: tax follows the client's state; unregistered client: the event's state

• Tickets up to ₹500 per person for concerts, theatre and award shows are exempt

What event management covers under GST

The services classification gives event work its own code: SAC 998596, "events, exhibitions, conventions and trade shows organisation and assistance services", in group 99859 under heading 9985 (support services). Planning a wedding, running a corporate offsite, managing a dealer meet, staging an exhibition stall programme or producing a college fest all fall here when the main thing the client buys is the organising.

Heading 9985 is taxed by serial 23 of Notification 11/2017-Central Tax (Rate). Item (i) is tour operators, item (ii) is house-keeping supplied through e-commerce platforms, and item (iii) — "support services other than (i) and (ii) above" — carries 9% central tax and 9% state tax, 18% in total. There is no concessional rate for event management, no turnover-based option and no exemption for small or social events. When the GST Council restructured rates from 22 September 2025, Notification 15/2025-CT(Rate) left serial 23 untouched, and the 57th Council meeting on 8 October 2026 made no recommendation on event services; any later change would need a fresh notification.

The organiser usually buys several other services to deliver the event, each with its own SAC and rate when billed on its own:

Bundled packages: why catering becomes 18%

Most planners quote one price — "₹25 lakh for the wedding, all inclusive" — and that creates a composite supply. Section 2(30) of the CGST Act defines a composite supply as two or more supplies naturally bundled and supplied together in the ordinary course of business, one of which is the principal supply; section 8 taxes the whole at the rate of the principal supply. When the client buys an organised event, the organising is the principal supply and the food, flowers and lights are the means of delivering it. The whole package is therefore taxed at 18%.

That surprises clients who know that wedding catering is 5% (no input tax credit). The 5% rate belongs to the caterer's supply to the planner. The planner's supply to the client is a different supply, and it is event management. The planner, in turn, is allowed credit on the caterer's tax: section 17(5)(b) blocks credit on outdoor catering, but its first proviso restores it where the catering is used "as an element of a taxable composite or mixed supply". The 5% caterer's "no ITC" condition binds the caterer only. So the planner pays 5% on food, claims it back, and charges 18% on the full package.

The planner can also claim credit on décor hire, sound and lighting rental, printing, transport and its own overheads, because those are inputs to an 18% taxable supply. Credit on hotel rooms or meals the planner's own staff use while working the event is a closer call — food for its own staff remains blocked unless it forms part of what is supplied to the client.

Pure agent: when costs stay out of the taxable value

Rule 33 of the CGST Rules lets a supplier exclude from its taxable value the costs it incurs "as a pure agent of the recipient". All of these must be true:

• the contract makes the organiser the client's agent to incur the expense, and the organiser pays the third party on the client's authorisation;
• the organiser does not hold, and does not intend to hold, title to what it procures;
• the organiser does not use what it procures for its own interest;
• it recovers only the actual amount paid, without mark-up, in addition to its own fee; and
• the amount is shown separately on the invoice, and the procurement is in addition to the services the organiser supplies on its own account.

In event work, the best candidates are amounts that are legally the client's own obligations: a venue booked and invoiced in the client's name with the client's GSTIN, statutory permission fees paid on the client's behalf, hotel rooms booked in guests' names and paid by the planner as a convenience, and an artist's fee where the artist contracts directly with the client. The rule's own illustration — a firm recovering Registrar of Companies fees paid for a client — shows the idea: the fee is levied on the client, and the firm only carries the cash.

The route fails where the organiser buys inputs to produce its own event. Food, décor, staging, lights and crew that the planner contracts in its own name, directs, and combines into the event it delivers are its own inputs, used in its own interest. Adding a "reimbursement" line on the invoice does not change that. If an expense is not a genuine pure-agent cost, tax it at 18% and claim credit on the vendor's bill; that is usually cheaper for a business client anyway, because the client can take credit on the full 18%.

Setting up a pure-agent reimbursement

1. 1

   Put the agency in the contract

   Name the specific costs the client authorises you to pay as its agent — for example the venue booking or police and fire permissions — and state that you recover them at actual cost.

2. 2

   Get the third party's bill in the client's name

   The venue or authority should invoice the client, with the client's GSTIN if registered, so the client takes the credit directly.

3. 3

   Pay and keep proof

   Keep the payment record and the client's written approval for each payment.

4. 4

   Show it separately

   List the reimbursement below your taxable fee on your invoice, without GST and without mark-up.

   Tip: Any handling charge or margin on the cost is your own fee — add it to the taxable value at 18%.

Venue, mandap and banquet hall rent

A hall, lawn, banquet room, convention centre or open ground rented on its own is renting of non-residential immovable property, SAC 997212, at 18%. The place of supply of a service directly related to immovable property is the property's location under section 12(3) of the IGST Act, so the venue charges CGST and SGST of its own state regardless of where the client or planner is based.

When the venue owner also supplies the food, the combined package is outdoor catering together with renting of premises under serial 7(v) of the rate notification. Outside a specified premises that package is 5% (no input tax credit) without credit; at a hotel that is a specified premises — one that sold any room above ₹7,500 a day in the previous year, or opted in — it is 18% with ITC. Our catering guide works through these packages.

Two exemptions matter for mandaps. Halls, community halls and kalyanamandapams in the precincts of a religious place owned or managed by a registered charitable or religious trust are exempt when the charge is below ₹10,000 a day, under entry 13 of Notification 12/2017-CT(Rate). And conducting a religious ceremony is itself exempt under the same entry, so a priest's dakshina carries no GST. Neither exemption extends to the décor, food or planner's fee around them.

The out-of-state venue problem

A planner registered in Delhi that books a Udaipur palace for a Delhi company's offsite receives a Rajasthan CGST-plus-SGST invoice from the venue. That tax sits under the venue's Rajasthan registration and does not flow into the planner's Delhi credit ledger, because the planner's Delhi GSTIN is not the Rajasthan recipient. Unless the planner holds a Rajasthan registration, it pays 18% on the venue as a cost while charging 18% again on the package. Planners solve this in one of two ways: the venue bills the client directly and the planner treats it as a pure-agent cost, or the planner takes a registration in the venue's state if it runs events there regularly. Price this before quoting, not after.

Place of supply: CGST plus SGST, or IGST?

Section 12(7) of the IGST Act sets a specific rule for organising cultural, artistic, sporting, scientific, educational or entertainment events, including conferences, fairs, exhibitions and celebrations, and for services ancillary to organising them or assigning sponsorship to them:

• Client registered: the place of supply is the client's location.
• Client not registered: it is where the event is actually held; if the event is held outside India, it is the client's location.

Where an event runs in more than one state for a consolidated fee, the place of supply is split between those states in proportion to the value attributable to each. Admission tickets follow a different rule, section 12(6): the place of supply is where the event is held.

Same planner, different clients

Planner in	Client	Event in	Tax charged
Maharashtra	Company registered in Maharashtra	Goa	CGST 9% + SGST 9%
Maharashtra	Company registered in Karnataka	Maharashtra	IGST 18%
Maharashtra	Unregistered family	Rajasthan	IGST 18%
Maharashtra	Unregistered family	Maharashtra	CGST 9% + SGST 9%
Maharashtra	Unregistered family	Dubai	CGST 9% + SGST 9% (client's location)

Maharashtra

Client

Company registered in Maharashtra

Event in

Goa

Tax charged

CGST 9% + SGST 9%

Maharashtra

Client

Company registered in Karnataka

Event in

Maharashtra

Tax charged

IGST 18%

Maharashtra

Client

Unregistered family

Event in

Rajasthan

Tax charged

IGST 18%

Maharashtra

Client

Unregistered family

Event in

Maharashtra

Tax charged

CGST 9% + SGST 9%

Maharashtra

Client

Unregistered family

Event in

Dubai

Tax charged

CGST 9% + SGST 9% (client's location)

Sponsorship and the reverse charge

Many events are paid for partly by sponsors who get naming rights, branding on stage and mentions. Sponsorship and brand promotion is SAC 998397, taxed at 18%. Serial 4 of Notification 13/2017-CT(Rate) puts "services provided by way of sponsorship to any body corporate or partnership firm" under reverse charge: whoever the supplier is, if the sponsor is a company or a partnership firm in India (an LLP is a body corporate under its own Act, so most practitioners treat it the same way), the sponsor pays the GST and the organiser's invoice shows no tax, marked "tax payable on reverse charge".

If the sponsor is an individual, a proprietorship, a trust or a society, the reverse charge does not apply, and a registered organiser charges GST on its invoice in the normal way. Sponsorship of sporting events organised by a national sports federation or its affiliates where teams represent a district, state, zone or country, and of specified university, school and Olympic-type events, is exempt under entry 53 of Notification 12/2017-CT(Rate).

The line between sponsorship and advertising matters. If a brand simply buys a hoarding or a stall at your event and receives no association with the event itself, that is sale of advertising space or renting of space at forward charge. If the brand pays to be named as a sponsor — "presented by", logo on all material — it is sponsorship. Write the deliverables into the sponsorship agreement so both sides know which applies.

Tickets, artists and government events

Tickets. Admission to a circus, dance, theatre, drama or ballet, an award function, concert, pageant or musical performance, a sporting event or a planetarium is exempt when the ticket is up to ₹500 per person, under entry 81 of Notification 12/2017-CT(Rate). Above that, concerts, award shows and theatre are taxed at 18%. Since 22 September 2025, admission to sporting events like the Indian Premier League is taxed at 40%, while recognised sporting events are expressly kept out of that entry. A planner who sells tickets at an event in another state supplies them in that state and may need a casual taxable person registration there first.

Event thresholds to know (2026)

₹500 per person

Ticket price exempt up to

Entry 81, Notification 12/2017

₹1,50,000 per performance

Folk/classical artist fee exempt up to

Per performance

₹10,000 a day

Religious-precinct hall rent exempt below

Per day

₹2.5 lakh

Government contract value for GST TDS

TDS 2% (1% CGST + 1% SGST, or 2% IGST)

Artists. A performance in a folk or classical art form of music, dance or theatre is exempt when the fee is up to ₹1,50,000 per performance per performance, except where the artist is acting as a brand ambassador. Other performers — film singers, DJs, comedians, anchors — charge 18% if registered. When the planner books an artist in its own name and bills the client a package, the planner's 18% applies to the full package regardless.

Government clients. Government departments and notified bodies registered to deduct tax deduct GST TDS of 2% (1% CGST + 1% SGST, or 2% IGST) from payments on contracts above ₹2.5 lakh, under section 51. The planner still charges 18% and claims the TDS in its cash ledger.

Worked examples in rupees

A corporate conference. A Mumbai planner runs a two-day dealer conference in Mumbai for a company registered in Maharashtra. Its package price is ₹40,00,000: venue ₹12,00,000 (billed to the planner at 18%), catering ₹10,00,000 (billed at 5%), stage and AV ₹8,00,000 (18%), and fee and margin ₹10,00,000. The planner charges 18% on ₹40,00,000 — ₹7,20,000, split ₹3,60,000 CGST and ₹3,60,000 SGST. It claims credit of ₹2,16,000 on the venue, ₹50,000 on the catering and ₹1,44,000 on the AV, ₹4,10,000 in total, and pays ₹3,10,000 in cash. The client claims the full ₹7,20,000.

The same event with a pure-agent venue. If the contract makes the planner the client's agent for the venue, and the venue bills ₹12,00,000 plus ₹2,16,000 GST directly in the client's name, the planner's taxable package drops to ₹28,00,000 and its GST to ₹5,04,000. The client claims ₹2,16,000 from the venue and ₹5,04,000 from the planner — the same ₹7,20,000. The pure-agent route changes who bills what, not the total tax for a business client; it mainly helps with out-of-state venues.

A wedding for an unregistered family. A Delhi planner organises a Jaipur wedding for a Delhi family for ₹25,00,000 all-inclusive. The family is unregistered, so the place of supply is Rajasthan and the planner charges IGST at 18%: ₹4,50,000. The family cannot claim any of it. Had the family hired the caterer and the venue directly, the food would have carried 5% (no input tax credit); families comparing quotes should know that the planner's convenience comes with 18% on the whole package.

A college fest with a company sponsor. A private limited company pays a college's cultural society ₹5,00,000 to be the title sponsor. The sponsor is a body corporate, so it pays 18% — ₹90,000 — under reverse charge and claims it as credit. The society's invoice shows ₹5,00,000 with "reverse charge: yes".

Registration, invoices and returns for event businesses

The registration threshold for an event business is ₹20 lakh of aggregate turnover, or ₹10 lakh in the special category states that apply the lower limit. Pure-agent reimbursements are not part of your turnover, but full package values are. In practice most planners serving corporate clients register early, because their clients want an invoice they can claim credit on.

Invoices should show SAC 998596, the client's GSTIN, the place of supply worked out under section 12(7), the taxable value, the tax split and, below it, any pure-agent reimbursements at actual cost. Advance payments are taxable in the month received: wedding and conference planners often collect 30–50% upfront months ahead, so issue a receipt voucher and pay tax on each advance. If an event is cancelled and the advance refunded, issue a refund voucher and adjust the tax. Retained cancellation charges are taxable as consideration for the service already supplied or for agreeing to the cancellation.

Report sponsorship received from companies as reverse-charge supplies in GSTR-1 so the sponsor sees them in its GSTR-2B. Exempt artist fees and religious-precinct hall rent, if you supply them yourself, go in the exempt column of GSTR-3B and need credit reversal on shared costs under rule 42.

Before you send an event quote

0/6

• Is the client registered? Note the GSTIN and decide the place of supply under section 12(7)
• Package price taxed at 18% — catering inside the package is not 5%
• Any pure-agent costs? Contract clause, bill in client's name, actual cost, shown separately
• Venue in another state? Plan who receives the venue invoice
• Sponsor is a company, LLP or firm? Mark the invoice reverse charge
• Advance received? Issue a receipt voucher and pay tax this month

Share Print

Common mistakes and how they are fixed

Charging 5% on a wedding package because it is mostly food. The planner's supply is event management. Officers look at the contract: if the client hired a planner to organise the wedding, the package is 18%. Correct future invoices and pay the difference with interest.

Labelling own costs as reimbursements. A "venue reimbursement" for a hall the planner booked in its own name and used to stage the event fails rule 33. The fix is to add the amount back to the taxable value and claim credit on the venue's invoice.

Charging GST to a company sponsor. If the sponsor is a body corporate or firm, the sponsor must pay under reverse charge. Tax collected by the organiser does not discharge it. Issue a credit note and let the sponsor self-assess.

Ignoring place of supply. Charging CGST and SGST to an unregistered client for an event held in another state is wrong; the tax belongs to the event's state as IGST. Paying it under the wrong head means paying again and claiming a refund of the first payment.

Official links

• Notification 11/2017-CT(R) — updated consolidated copySerial 23(iii), serial 7, serial 34
• Notifications 15–17/2025-CT(R) (GST 2.0)Rates from 22 September 2025
• Notification 13/2017-CT(R)Serial 4 — sponsorship under reverse charge
• Notification 12/2017-CT(R) — updated consolidated copyEntries 13, 53, 78, 81
• Rule 33, CGST RulesPure agent
• Section 12, IGST ActPlace of supply

What to do next

Build two quote templates — an all-inclusive package taxed at 18%, and a fee-plus-pure-agent version for clients who want to contract venues directly — and use the quotation generator and invoice generator to keep the tax lines right. If you are setting up, the event management business plan covers costs and licences, and the GST on catering services guide explains what your caterers will charge you. For sponsorship and other reverse-charge items, see the reverse charge mechanism guide.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice — confirm on the official source or with a professional.

Frequently asked questions

What is the GST rate on event management services?

Event management is taxed at 18% — 9% CGST plus 9% SGST, or 18% IGST — under heading 9985 (support services), serial 23(iii) of Notification 11/2017-CT(Rate). The rate applies to the organiser's fee and, when the organiser sells a single bundled package, usually to the whole package including catering and décor. GST 2.0 on 22 September 2025 did not change it.

What is the SAC code for event management?

SAC 998596 covers events, exhibitions, conventions and trade shows organisation and assistance services. Related codes are 998397 for sponsorship and brand promotion, 996334 for event catering, 997212 for renting non-residential property such as halls, and 999629 for live entertainment not elsewhere classified. Print the code that matches the service actually billed.

Is GST payable on the full event budget or only on the organiser's fee?

On everything the client pays the organiser, unless part of it qualifies as pure-agent reimbursement under rule 33 of the CGST Rules. That needs a contract authorising the organiser to pay a third party for the client, actual cost recovered without mark-up, separate disclosure on the invoice, and the organiser holding no title to or use of what it buys. Venue and catering used to deliver the event rarely qualify.

Who pays GST on sponsorship of an event?

If the sponsor is a body corporate or a partnership firm, the sponsor pays GST at 18% under reverse charge (serial 4 of Notification 13/2017-CT(Rate)), and the organiser's invoice carries no tax. If the sponsor is an individual, proprietorship or other person, the registered organiser charges GST itself. Sponsorship of specified sporting events organised by national federations and similar bodies is exempt.

What is the GST on mandap or banquet hall rent?

Renting a hall, lawn or mandap on its own is renting of non-residential property at 18%. When the venue owner also supplies the catering as one package, the package is taxed as outdoor catering — 5% (no input tax credit), or 18% with ITC if the venue is a hotel at a specified premises. Halls in the precincts of a religious place run by a registered trust are exempt below ₹10,000 a day.

What is the place of supply for event management services?

Under section 12(7) of the IGST Act, it is the client's location if the client is registered, and the place where the event is held if the client is unregistered — or the client's location if the event is outside India. So a Delhi planner organising a Goa wedding for a Delhi-registered company charges CGST and SGST; for an unregistered family, it charges IGST.

Sources & verification

Figures on this page were checked against the sources below when it was last reviewed on 11 October 2026. Each rate and limit is stored once with its own official source and review date, and official update channels are monitored daily so changes are picked up. How we verify

1. 1.Notification No. 11/2017–Central Tax (Rate), updated consolidated version (Telangana State Tax copy) — Telangana Commercial Taxes Department · accessed 11 October 2026
2. 2.Notifications No. 15/2025, 16/2025 and 17/2025–Central Tax (Rate), 17 September 2025 (Gazette) — Ministry of Finance (Gazette of India) · accessed 11 October 2026
3. 3.Notification No. 13/2017–Central Tax (Rate) — reverse charge on services — CBIC · accessed 11 October 2026
4. 4.Notification No. 12/2017–Central Tax (Rate), updated consolidated version (Telangana State Tax copy) — Telangana Commercial Taxes Department · accessed 11 October 2026
5. 5.Rule 33 — CGST Rules, 2017 (value of supply in case of pure agent) — CBIC · accessed 11 October 2026
6. 6.Section 12 — IGST Act, 2017 — CBIC · accessed 11 October 2026
7. 7.Section 17 — CGST Act, 2017 — CBIC · accessed 11 October 2026
8. 8.Indirect tax alert — recommendations of the 57th GST Council meeting — BDO India · accessed 11 October 2026