Recently there have been two important changes
on the indirect tax front, pertaining to Service Tax
and Value Added Tax (VAT). This alert outlines
these changes and their implications. |
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Compulsory Electronic mode
of payment & filing of
Service tax returns
Background
In the era of e-governance, the
Government of India had, some time
back, introduced the facility of epayment
of Service Tax and e-filing of
Service Tax Return. The facility of efiling
of returns is, till date, voluntary
for assessees. However, e-payment
was mandatory for the assessees whose "Service tax paid" amount
exceeded Rs. 50 Lakhs during any
current year or in the preceding year.
Mandatory e-filing vide
latest Notification
However now, vide the Notification
No. 01/2010 dated 19th Feb 2010,
the service tax department desires to
make both e-payment and e-filing
mandatory for certain categories of
assessees from 1st April, 2010. For this purpose, any person who has
paid service tax including utilization
of CENVAT Credit, of more than Rs.
10 Lakhs in the preceding year will
be covered by this notification.
Manual filing of service tax returns
by such assessees would attract
penalties for non filing of returns.
New procedure for e-filing
The procedure for e-filing includes
following steps:
One time procedures:
- File a User Id (TPIN) request with
the Service Tax Department.
- Get the unique User Id (TPIN) and
Password
Regular Procedures:
- Assessee has option to
(a) File the return online direcly,
or
(b) Download the off-line return
utilities which can be filled-in off-line, validated and later uploaded
through the internet
- The e-returns have to be uploaded on http://
www.aces.gov.in.
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