Taxable Person under GST

A ‘taxable person’ under GST, is a person who carries on any business at any place in India and who is registered or required to be registered under the GST Act. Any person who engages in economic activity including trade and commerce is treated as taxable person.

‘Person’ here includes individuals, HUF, company, firm, LLP, an AOP/BOI, any corporation or Government company, body corporate incorporated under laws of foreign country, co-operative society, local authority, government, trust, artificial juridical person.

Who is Liable to get Registered under GST?

GST registration is mandatory for-

• Any business whose turnover in a financial year exceeds Rs 20 lakhs (Rs 10 lakhs for North Eastern and hill states).

[Note: If your turnover is supply of only exempted  goods/services which are exempt under GST, this clause does not apply.]

• Every person who is registered under an earlier law (i.e., Excise, VAT, Service Tax etc.)  needs to register under GST, too.
• When a business which is registered has been transferred to someone/demerged, the transferee shall take registration with effect from the date of transfer.
• Anyone who drives inter-state supply of goods
• Casual taxable person (see below)
• Non-Resident taxable person (see below)
• Agents of a supplier
• Those paying tax under the reverse charge mechanism
• Input service distributor (see below)
• E-commerce operator or aggregator
• Person who supplies via e-commerce aggregator
• Person supplying online information and database access or retrieval services from a place outside India to a person in India, other than a registered taxable person

Who is a Casual Taxable Person under GST?

A person who occasionally supplies goods and/or services in a territory where GST is applicable but he does not have a fixed place of business. Such a person will be treated as a casual taxable person as per GST.

Example: A person who has a place of business in Bangalore supplies taxable consulting services in Pune where he has no place of business would be treated as a casual taxable person in Pune.

Who is a Non-Resident Taxable person under GST?

When a non-resident occasionally supplies goods/services in a territory where GST applies, but he does not have a fixed place of business in India. As per GST, he will be treated as a non-resident taxable person. It is similar to above except the non-resident has no place of business in India.

Who is an Input Service Distributor?

‘Input Service Distributor’ means an office of the supplier of goods/services which receives tax invoices on receipt of input services and issues tax invoices for the purpose of distributing the credit of CGST/SGST/IGST paid on the said services to your branch with same PAN. (It must be a supplier of taxable goods /services having the same PAN as that of the office referred to above).

Thus, only credit on ‘input services’ can be distributed and not on input goods or capital goods.

This will be a new concept for assessees who are currently not registered as input service distributor. However, this facility is optional in nature.

GST Registration by Type of Taxable Person

• Every person has to apply for registration in every State in which he is liable, within thirty daysfrom the date on which he becomes liable to registration.
• Casual/ non-residents should apply at least five days before their commencement of business.
• Registration number in GST will be PAN based and hence, having PAN would be a prerequisite for obtaining registration.
• The assessee must obtain separate registration for each State, as registration under GST will be State-wise,
• The assessee has an option to obtain a separate registration for each of the ‘business vertical’ in the same State.

Special registration for casual taxable person and non-resident taxable person (section 24)

A casual taxable person or a non-resident taxable person shall apply for registration at least five days prior to the commencement of business. Section 24 provides for special provisions relating to casual taxable person and non-resident under GST.

Casual/non-resident taxable person may obtain a temporary registration for a period of 90 days (extendable for additional 90 days).

A person who obtains registration u/s 24, will be required to make advance deposit of GST (based on his estimated tax liability).

Collecting GST

Only a registered taxable person can collect GST. The taxable person must prominently indicate the GST amount on tax invoices.

Returns

A normal taxpayer will be required to furnish three returns monthly and one annual return. There are separate returns for a taxpayer registered under the composition scheme, Input Service Distributor, a person liable to deduct or collect the tax (TDS/TCS).