For Indian schools
GST on school fees, without the hand-waving.
Tuition at a recognised institution is generally exempt. Several things a school also charges for are not, and mixing them in one fee head is where the trouble starts.
This is a summary written by software people to help you have a useful conversation with your auditor. It is not tax advice, and your school's position depends on facts we cannot see from here.
The distinction that matters
Educational services are generally exempt
Services provided by an educational institution to its own students — tuition and the services incidental to it — sit outside GST in the ordinary case.
Not everything a school charges is that
Transport, hostel, food, books, uniforms and third-party services can each be treated differently, and some depend on whether the school provides them itself or through a vendor.
One head is a problem
A single fee head that bundles tuition with transport removes your ability to treat them differently — and to show an auditor which is which.
So the software keeps them apart
Each fee head carries its own treatment, and reports split collection by head. Your auditor decides the treatment; the system makes sure the numbers exist to apply it.
What Edustians charges you, separately
Our own invoice to your school is a software subscription, and GST applies to it in the normal way. That is a separate matter from the fees you collect from families, and the two never appear on the same document.
Send this to your auditor before you decide anything.
The useful thing we can offer is fee heads that keep the distinctions your auditor needs. The distinctions themselves are theirs to make.