Place of Supply - Organising Events and Sponsorship [Section 12(7) IGST Act]
# Place of Supply: Organising Events & Sponsorship
## Three-Branch Rule
Recipient's Status
Where Event is Held
Place of Supply
Registered
Anywhere (India or outside)
Location of recipient
Unregistered
In India
Location where event is held
Unregistered
Outside India
Location of recipient
## Apportionment Across Multiple States
If an event is held in more than one State/UT and the contract does not specify allocation, apportion PoS proportionately based on Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).
## Why This Matters
For a registered recipient, the location of the event is irrelevant — PoS is always recipient's location. This means GST follows the consumer, consistent with the destination-based principle and keeping ITC flow clean.
For an unregistered recipient, PoS defaults to the event venue (within India) so that the State where consumption-equivalent activity happens gets the tax.
If the event is abroad and recipient is unregistered, India taxes it at the recipient's Indian location (otherwise it would escape Indian GST).
Worked example
### Example 1
Example — Product launch events in India and abroad
Mr. Ron (Registered in Pune) avails event organisation services from XYZ Ltd. (Gurgaon). Events are held in Delhi (₹3 lacs) and Mauritius (₹8 lacs).
Solution (Ron is registered):
Delhi event → PoS = Pune (location of recipient).
Mauritius event → PoS = Pune (location of recipient).
Variation (Ron is unregistered):
Delhi event → PoS = Delhi (event held in India).
Mauritius event → PoS = Pune (event outside India → recipient location).
⚠️ Common exam mistakes
Defaulting to event venue for a registered recipient — registration overrides venue.
Forgetting the special rule for unregistered recipients when the event is held abroad (PoS = recipient).
Using a custom allocation across States when GAAP-based apportionment is the default in absence of contract.
Bare-Act text Section 12(7) · IGST Act, 2017 · click to expand
Section 12(7), IGST Act: The place of supply of services provided by way of,— (a) organisation of a cultural, artistic, sporting, scientific, educational or entertainment event including supply of services in relation to a conference, fair, exhibition, celebration or similar events; or (b) services ancillary to organisation of any of the events or services referred to in clause (a), or assigning of sponsorship to such events,— (i) to a registered person, shall be the location of such person; (ii) to a person other than a registered person, shall be the place where the event is actually held and if the event is held outside India, the place of supply shall be the location of the recipient.