GST - A Good and Simple Tax to Comply?

Finalization of draft rules governing the new GST regime alone will be able to determine whether these are an added “boon or bane” for assessees.

This article highlights certain key compliance aspects under the new regime. Whether these are an added “boon or bane” for an assessee will be clear only in the coming months.

Registration

The journey of a taxpayer under the GST regime commences from registration under the applicable legislation. The “one India, one tax” manifesto has also been extended to the registration module, where an assessee does not need to go about knocking the doors of multiple tax authorities every time he/she is required to register himself/ herself under a different indirect tax regime. However, the manifesto in the context of registration is slightly tweaked to “one state, one tax.” This is because as on date, the centralized registration mechanism does not find a mention under the legislation, regardless of collective representations made by several service sectors such as telecom, information technology, and banking. With this, assessees have inherited an additional burden of obtaining registration for each state where they have a presence.

Every supplier will be liable for registration under the GST regime in the state from where he/she makes a taxable supply of goods and/or services if his/her aggregate turnover in a financial year exceeds INR 20 lakhs. In case of supplies from special-category states, the threshold limit is capped at INR 10 lakhs. With the term “supply” covering all forms of supply of goods or services or both and “aggregate turnover” covering all taxable supplies, exempt supplies, exports, and interstate supplies, it appears that there would be very few assessees who would not be required to opt for registration under the new regime.