Alright, before I take the plunge into revealing what I expect from the impending budget, let’s take a quick glance at numbers on how the Government has fared since its inception:

Modi’s flagship Make in India initiative launched to create employment & self-employment saw huge traction with India’s gross FDI flow jumping by 27% a.k.a $45 billion in 2015-16, an all-time high.
Jan Dhan Yojana witnessed 11.5 crore Indians opening bank accounts, that’s getting 99.74% households bankable.
Under the Swachch Bharat initiative, a total of 31.83 lakh toilets have been built between April 2014 and January 2015, 25.4% of the target. World bank has also invested $1 Bn in PM’s pet project.
In Feb 2016 alone, under the Skill India initiative, 3,222 training centres were opened, more than 55 lakh people trained and 50% placed.
Nasscom had launched the “10,000 Startups programme” in 2013 in which 700 tech-driven startups were set up. After the launch of the Startup India, Stand up India initiative by 2015, the number had increased by 70% to around 1200. It is expected, there will be a 75% increase in the number to 2100 by 2020.

All said and done, looks like NDA government has fared decently in their term thus far and as the run up to the elections in 2019 rapidly advances, this year’s budget is going to be epic!

For starters this is going to be the first time that a Union Budget will be passed in February. The reason is concrete! When a budget is declared in March, it gets passed by both the houses only by mid-May thus delaying the entire process. By having a budget in Feb, the govt is making sure that it’s passed and ready to be implemented before the start of the new financial calendar.

Secondly, thanks to the demonetization move, digital commerce has been given a massive push. Furthermore, a year after PM Modi launched the visionary ‘Startup India Campaign’, there’s a lot of heat building up in the startup community which is expecting a series of initiatives that will be in their favor. 2017 is surely poised to be an exciting year.

1. For Startups

Widening of tax-free regime from the current 3 years to 5 years along with easier procedural clearances. Considering startups take a while to register profits, this move will promote entrepreneurship and innovation.
The government may also make regulations on FDI and ease institutional investment while also reducing governmental charges and taxes on it. In the long run, this will help in solving the capital need for startups since, majority of funding for startups come from venture capital funds that rely heavily on foreign investments.
With the Start-up initiative at the fore, we can see a new set of concessions on employee stock options, unlisted securities and convertible instruments.

2. Womenpreneurs: Easy access to funds

When it comes to women entrepreneurs, though, the government has been supportive in promoting women entrepreneurship, what most of us need is an easy access to funds. Additionally, since the implementation of GST will be on table for this budget, the government will come up with the new rationalized tax structure. We, women entrepreneurs, should definitely be a part of consideration in corporate taxes and loans.

3. Definitive SOPs, tax rebates, indirect taxes

The sole goal of demonetization was to put India on the path towards a cashless economy. Keeping this in mind, the Budget should include definitive SOPs and tax rebates to encourage and boost e-payments. Moreover, to achieve the goal of financial inclusion, the government should also rationalize indirect taxes and charges levied with respect to digital payment transactions and further incentivize companies operating within this space. To adapt to the need of time, government should also rationalize income tax provisions including provisions related to employee tax benefits such that payments/documents in the digital medium are treated at par with physical instruments.

4. Corporate taxes

I’m even looking at the reduction of corporate tax rate from 35 to 25% percent for startups and companies in the digital payments ecosystem. Transactions worth trillions are done in India yearly. Of these, hardly 10% are on digital platforms. The government must take more concrete steps to make digital payments ubiquitous. This budget should announce measures to upgrade digital infrastructure across the country. Steps should be taken to promote digital literacy and connect cities, towns and villages with high-speed internet networks.

5. Digital payment

While, the government has pushed for digitalization, post the demonetization move, I believe a lot still needs to be done on promoting digital payments. For instance, the government needs to reconcile and even reduce all indirect taxes on digital payments to nil. The government needs to work on a concerted effort to cut the payment gateway and bank charges on online transactions. Only then would people be truly incentivized to pay online.

The sector wants more tax concessions for customers and shopkeepers who go digital. The incentives can come in the form of income tax, service tax etc. What the budget can offer is extend the nuggets of sops on e-payments through UPI, add a dash of income tax rebates on e-payments and facilitate retailer-rebates on grocery bills, LPG payments, bus or metro card recharges and so on. The government has already introduced waiver of service tax on debit and credit card transactions of up to Rs 2,000.

In conclusion…

2016 had witnessed several markdowns in India’s ecosystem and I’m definitely looking forward to the budget and what it has in store.

Guest Post by Dr. Som Singh, Entrepreneur, Investor and founder of Unspun Consulting. This post was written for the Entrepreneur India magazine.

Tax on Services procured from foreign service providers

Startups and SMEs in a digital world use many services from across the world. Skype, Google ADwords and hosting services from foreign hosting providers are some examples. So also are the online services of consultants, designers, content writers and developers etc.

There is a service tax required that apply on many such services. Many people confuse on when a service tax applies or advised that there is no service tax. We also come across an opinion floating around that we can circumvent the service tax by paying using personal cards.

Yet, another confusion is on online advertisements. This got complicated further with the addition of equalization levy introduced in budget 2016-17. In some extreme cases entrepreneurs were advised that only 6% equalization levy is to paid when buying from foreign providers. So, we talked to some local consultants. And, to our dismay we found the confusions was equally prevalent among them, on equalization levy on online advertisements..

There is lot of material present on Internet on equalization levy (introduced in finance bill 2016). So, also are articles on service tax on import of service and online online advertisements. Most of these articles are in very legal language. Also, they are not presented at one place to clear the confusion for young entrepreneurs.

This article is aimed at clearing the confusions and helping small companies in understanding the issues involved, to enable them in right compliance. Let us understand the issues in following order:

Provisions of service tax on import of service
Service tax on online advertisement services
Equalization levy on online advertisements

Service tax on import of services

A service tax is payable on all ‘taxable services’ in India. Present rate as on date is 15% (14% Basic, 0.5% Swatch Bharat Cess, 0.5% Krishi Layan Cess).

What are taxable services

To know if a service is taxable or not, one has to refer to provisions of Service tax act and the negative list. The negative is the list of items excluded from service tax. Usually all services that do not fall in negative list are ‘taxable services’.

The most common services that startups use are:

Consulting or professional services – Designers, Coders etc.
Services like Skype
Online advertisement services (google add words/ADSense)
Hosting or cloud services etc.

Please note that the Software is a service, unless it is physically imported on a media through a port of entry. This means the downloaded packaged Software and Software in SaaS model are ‘taxable service’. So also are other digital goods (pdfs, eBooks, music, video etc) downloaded.

Who is liable for Service tax on import of service?

Generally, the liability to pay service tax is on the ‘service provider’. Since it is an indirect tax, the service providers bills the service tax to service receiver, collects tax from service receiver and deposits it to the service tax department. However, in case of imported services it is different.

An import of service occurs when a ‘service receiver’ located in taxable territory of India receives a service from a ‘service provider’ located in nontaxable territory i.e. from outside borders of India.

Since, in case of import of service the ‘service provider’ is not located in the taxable territory of India, the responsibility of service tax lies on ‘service receiver’. This is known as reverse charge mechanism, in service tax act parlance.

The reverse charge mechanism (RCM) is applicable vide Notification No. 30/2012-ST dated 20.06.2012. This RCM notification prescribes that, “in respect of any taxable services provided or agreed to be provided by any person who is located in a nontaxable territory and received by any person located in the taxable territory”, 100% of service tax shall be payable by the person receiving the service.

This provision is not applicable in case of ‘individuals’ who have received such service other than for the purpose of use in business or commerce (Provisions made under section 66A of the Finance Act, 1994).

In view of above let use answer following two questions.

Am I liable to pay Service tax?

A business receiving services from a service provider located outside India, is liable to pay service tax at prescribed rate and as per rules in force at the time.

Can I pay from my personal credit card and get reimbursed from my company?

An individual can receive services for a consideration paid to a service provider located outside India, without a liability to pay service tax, provide the services received are not for business or commercial consumption.

This means, you should not buy services on your personal credit card and use for business. Small amounts may go unnoticed or not enforced by service tax department. But, substantial amounts of such transactions can put you in trouble at later date.

Using online advertisements from foreign suppliers

In case of online advertisements, we come across following two provisions:

a) Service tax on online advertisement services
b) Equalization levy on online advertisements

As mentioned above we came across some entrepreneurs confused on weather both of applies or one of them apply.

Service tax on online advertisement services

Finance act 2014 brought in changes to negative list to broaden the tax base. It now includes provision of online advertisement space on Internet as a taxable service.

Hence, a 15% tax will apply on service of advertisement.

Some people confuse on payment of service tax when they buy from companies like Google and Microsoft. At times, such companies provide some selective services from Indian subsidiary. And, they provide other services from their parent company or a subsidiary outside India.

One should be watchful on where the billing of services is being done from. If this is Google India (e.g. for ADwords), the service tax will be billed to you. The service recipient can see the service tax in the bill. E.g. Google provides Adwords from Google, India.

Many a times when you buy a service using a card online, you buy it from foreign entity. This may go unnoticed as the payment happens in Indian rupees. This happens because of real time conversion from US$ to Indian rupees by the payment gateway.

The transaction is so seamless that the buyer of service does not realize that she actually bought from a foreign company. This happens quite often in case of companies like Google and Microsoft. You buy in Indian Rupees but the transaction may be done by Google, Ireland.

You should be careful about such transactions and your liability to pay service tax. Check is the service tax is mentioned in bill as an item. If not and your billing party is foreign entity or person the service tax is your responsibility.

Special case of ADsense (or similar services)

As per common knowledge ADsense services is presently provided by Google Inc. USA. Hence, the advertisement space revenue received by the Indian websites is in US$. There is an argument that this being export of service is not subject to service tax.

The ADsense issue is not straight forward. clear. The advance ruling issued by service tax department says it is subject to Service tax. Since the agreement is between the Indian website company and Google, INC, some experts treat this as export of service. Thus not falling under service tax net.

However, there is a warning here as per service tax place of business rules. If one is able to establish the end use of service being done by an India company i.e. the advertiser is Indian company, then the situation is complex. The service tax department can call for scrutiny of cases to prove that there was not use of service by any Indian company.

So, ADsense case is not crystal clear and there is needs for caution to be exercised.

Equalization levy

The finance bill 2016 introduced an equalization levy of 6%. This is a type of withholding tax on income of non-resident (foreign service providers) from their sales in India.

The first important point to be noted here is that this is not linked to service tax at all. Service tax is an indirect tax on consumption of service, administered by service tax department. The equalization levy is a type of a direct tax levy on income and administered by Income Tax department.

What is covered under Equalization levy?

The equalization levy is applicable at a rate of 6% on the gross consideration payable for a ‘specified service’. It is applicable if the aggregate value of consideration in a year exceeds Rs. 1 lakh (approximately US$1,500). At present, the ‘specified service’ as defined in the provision are:

Online advertisement
Any provision for digital advertising space or any facility/service for the purpose of online advertisement

In addition, the notification also says more services can be added in future.

Who needs to comply?

As in case of service tax individual consumers are exempted. So, the levy is currently applicable only on B2B transactions.

Every resident person and foreign company (having a PE in India) is required to withhold the equalization levy when making payment to a non-resident (individual or business) service provider.

It is not applicable to non-resident service providers having a PE in India, because they will be subject to regular taxation as a PE in India e.g. Google Inc, USA having a PE in India (Google India Pvt. Ltd) is exempted from equalization levy.

Who bears the burden?

The equalization levy is designed as a withholding tax to be deducted by Indian service recipient from payments to be made to foreign service provider and deposited with Income tax department. The foreign service provider can take the tax credit in home country as per procedure.

However, there are apprehensions that some service provider will not agree to these deductions and finally the Indian companies will bear this as cost.

In any case, the responsibility to deposit the tax with Government lies with Indian service recipients.

Why was equalization levy applied?

The background of equalization levy lies in a ongoing hot debate on subject of base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) Action Plan. BESP has been under discussion at Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In digital world, companies from one country can sell online across their borders without having a presence in that geography. This can cause profit erosion in these geographies across borders.

OECD does not favour proactive use of equalization levey. But, they agreed that countries could introduce one in their domestic laws as an additional safeguard against BEPS, provided they respect existing treaty obligations, or include them in their bilateral tax treaties.

It is a tax to equalize the tax burden on remote and domestic suppliers of similar goods and services in a digital world and a safe guard against BEPS.

It has been introduced in in India through Finance bill 2016, by inserting a new chapter titled Equalization Levy.

Situation in GST transition

The clarity on all aspects has still to come in GST. Yet, concepts like reverse charge mechanism (RCM) will apply. Software or all intangibles will be treated as ‘services’ as per model law. We from iSPIRT are arguing against it and wants Software products treated as ‘digital goods’. The rate of service tax will further go up. States will also be charging service tax. Hence, there will be two services tax that will be payable in GST. The state GST (SGST) and center GST (CGST).

Equalization levy has nothing to do with GST. It is going to stay and may be extended to other e-commerce in cross border trade, in future.

Tag: service tax

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