Service Tax Registration India – Service Tax is an Indirect Tax to be collected by the service providers on services notified by the Government. The Service Tax provisions were first notified under Finance Act 2005. However certain exemptions have been provided to small scale businesses, whose turnover does not exceed Rs 9 lakhs in a financial year.

Every person who has provided a taxable service of value exceeding Rs. 9 lakhs, in the preceding financial year, is required to register with the Central Excise or Service Tax office having jurisdiction over the premises or office of such service provider. Service provider has to file form ST-1 for Registration purposes along with necessary documents like PAN, address proof, etc along with prescribed fees.

In case of different nature of services rendered, the service provider has to apply for separate registration. And in case of services rendered through different premises, centralized registration can be applied for. Failure to register attracts penalty of Rs 5,000 or Rs 200 per day during the period, such failure continues, whichever is higher.

Sales Tax Registration India – Article 366 (29A) of Indian Constitution provides for tax on sale or purchase of goods. The Central Sales Tax applies, when the sale or purchase has been made in the course of inter-state Trade. While Local Sales Tax was converted to VAT (Vale Added Tax) since 2005.

Section 2 (g) of CST Act defines sale as… “sale, with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions, means any transfer of property in goods by one person to another for cash or for deferred payment or for any other valuable consideration, and includes a transfer of goods on the hire-purchase or other system of payment by installments, but does not include a mortgage or hypothecation of or a charge or pledge on goods”.

Every dealer who effects inter-state sale, is required to register with Central Sales Tax authority. On registration, a Sales Tax ID is provided under which dealer/ seller can collect Sales Tax from the buyer. Sales tax is the percentage of revenue imposed on the retail sale of goods.

Unlike VAT, sales tax is levied on the total value of goods and services purchased. While VAT (Value Added Tax) is a form of indirect tax that is imposed at different stages of production on goods and services. The purpose of VAT is to provide relief to the ultimate consumer from price hike, as only value added at different stages of production is Taxable.

Income Tax/PAN Registration India –

The foremost requirement under Income Tax, 1963 is for every taxpayer to get a PAN (Permanent Account Number). Permanent Account Number (PAN) is a ten-digit alphanumeric number, issued in the form of a laminated card, by the Income Tax Department, which is required to be mandatorily quoted on all return of income, all correspondence with any income tax authority and on challans for any payments due to Income Tax Department.

It is also compulsory to quote PAN in all documents pertaining to financial transactions notified from time-to-time by the CBDT(Central Board of Direct Taxes). Like sale and purchase of immovable property or motor vehicle or payments in cash, or in connection with travel to any foreign country, or for obtaining a telephone or cellular telephone connection, or for making a time deposit exceeding Rs. 50,000/- with a Bank or Post Office or depositing cash of Rs. 50,000/- or more in a Bank.

Further, under various other provisions charitable organizations can get themselves registered for different kinds of exemptions:

• Sec 12AA of Income Tax Act 1963 – Charitable Institutions or Trusts can register themselves with Commissioner of Income Tax.
• Sec 35AC of Income Tax Act 1963 – organizations having income from business or profession can get 100 per cent deduction.
• Section 80G of Income Tax Act 1963 – Individuals / Organizations donating to NGOs registered under 80G can get appropriate exemptions.

Excise Duty Registration India –

Excise Tax is basically levied upon manufacturing of goods. For purpose of levy of Excise duty, an article must satisfy two requirements to be ‘goods’ i.e.

(a) it must be movable and
(b) it must be marketable. However, actual sale is not necessary.

Every manufacture has to get himself compulsorily registered with Excise Authorities. As per section 6 of the Central Excise Act, prescribed person who is engaged in – The production or manufacturer of any specified goods included in the First Schedule and the Second Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, or the wholesale purchase or sale or the storage of any specified goods included in the First Schedule and the Second Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, shall get himself registered with the appropriate authority.

The registration is made in respect of premises and not any individual or business. The registration form 1-A along with necessary documents are to be filed with Central Excise Commissioner. Registration Certificate in Form ‘RC’is issued within 7 days of registration. Each registered person will be allotted a 15 digit- code known as Excise Control Code. Assessee is required to mention the ECC code on all invoices.

Customs Duty Registration India – Customs Duty is levied upon import and export of goods from or into India. Section 12 of Customs Act provides that duties of customs shall be levied at such rates as may be specified under ‘The Customs Tariff Act, 1975’.

Basic customs duty levied u/s 12 of Customs Act is generally 10% of non- agricultural goods. In case of exports, taxable event occurs when goods cross territorial waters of India. In case of imports, taxable event occurs when goods mix with landmass of India.

Every Exporter/Importer has compulsorily to apply for IEC code with DGFT before undertaking any export/import activity from or into India. And also required to register with Foreign Exchange dealer.

The custom clearance is a complicated and time consuming procedure, as manual checking is done for all the consignments and accordingly customs duty is levied upon the goods. Though documents can be filed through e-filing system of Customs. Various kind of Customs Duty are levied like Countervailing Duty (CVD), Special CVD, Anti-dumping duty, Safeguard duty. And also one can apply for Duty Drawback in certain cases.