Know Your Supplier on GST Portal

The GST System has introduced the “Know Your Supplier” facility by which you can pick suppliers who are mostly tax compliant and will file proper sales invoices in their GST returns timely so that you can obtain the GST input tax credit (ITC) on those purchases.

On logging in to the GST portal, navigate to the search tab and enter the GSTIN of the taxpayers for which you seek details.

The facility shall provide the following particulars about your suppliers.

State Jurisdiction Officer / Central Jurisdiction Officer

Registration Date

Constitution of Business

Status of GSTIN: Active/Suspended/Cancelled

Taxpayer Type: Regular/Composition/Casual

Annual Aggregate Turnover

Percentage of Tax Payment made in Cash

Goods and Services provided with HSN/SAC code

Names of the Proprietor, Partners, Directors

Nature of business activities

E-way Bill history

Legal and Trade Name

Principal and Additional places of business

Contact Details

TDS on Purchase of Goods - Section 194Q

Which person has to deduct TDS on purchase of goods?

The Finance Act 2021 has introduced the concept of TDS on Purchase of Goods under Section 194Q of the Income Tax Act, 1961, by which:

Turnover > 10 Crores: Any person whose total sales, gross receipts or turnover from business exceeds Rs. 10 crore in the previous financial year; and

Purchase > 50 Lakhs: purchases goods of a minimum value of Rs. 50 lakhs in a financial year from a resident seller; then

Time of Deduction: such buyer shall at the earlier of: (i) time of credit of such amount to the seller's account, or (ii) at the time of payment to the seller 

Rate of TDS: deduct TDS @ 0.1% of such sum exceeding Rs. 50 lakh

From when is this section coming into effect?

This section shall come into effect from 01-Jul-2021.

Is this section contradictory or complimentary to TCS on Sale of Goods under section 206C(1H)? What would happen if both seller and buyer need to collect or deduct TDS?

As per sub-section (5) of section 194Q, the provisions of this section shall not apply to a transaction on which:

(a) tax is deductible under any of the provisions of this Act; and

(b) tax is collectible under the provisions of section 206C other than a transaction to which section 206C(1H)applies.

Further, a proviso to section 206C(1H) states that the provisions of this section shall not apply, if the buyer is liable to deduct tax at source under any other provision of this Act on the goods purchased by him from the seller and has deducted such amount.

Thus, it can be understood that TDS is mandatorily required to be deducted by a buyer on purchase of goods above Rs. 50 lakhs if the purchaser has a turnover of over Rs. 10 crores in the previous financial year. If such buyer fails to deduct TDS, then the seller has to collect TCS on the sales exceeding Rs. 50 lakhs at 0.10%.

The buyer will be responsible to deduct TDS on purchase of goods @0.1% only if he fulfills the turnover criterion. In case the buyer's previous financial year's turnover is less than Rs. 10 crores, but the seller's turnover is above Rs. 10 crores, then the seller will be responsible to collect TCS @0.1%.

What is the repercussion of not deducting TDS on purchase of goods under this section?

As per section 40(a)(ia) of the Income Tax Act, 30% of the value of purchase will be disallowed while computing the taxable income of the buyer.

Whether TDS is to be deducted on the total invoice value including the GST?

In respect of Section 206C(1H), the CBDT has clarified vide Circular No. 17 dated 29-Sep-2020 that since the collection is made with reference to receipt of the amount of sale consideration, no adjustment on account of indirect taxes including GST is required to be made for the collection of tax under this provision.

As the TDS deduction u/s 194Q is to be made with reference to the purchase value, we may apply the same principle and conclude that GST shall form part of the purchase value, and TDS is deductible on the value inclusive of GST.

Additional Tax Deduction for Generating Employment - Section 80JJAA

The Income Tax Act, 1961 has a provision under section 80JJAA, by which an additional tax deduction is offered to businesses generating new employment during the year.

The section grants a deduction of 30% of additional employee cost incurred by the taxpayer for each of the 3 financial years starting from the year in which such employment is provided to new persons.

How is the deduction calculated?

Additional Employee Cost in the year = Rs. 1,00,000/-

Deduction allowed as expense for income tax calculation purposes:

Year 1 = Rs. 1,30,000/-

Year 2 = Rs. 30,000/-

Year 3 = Rs. 30,000/-

What kind of employees are considered as Additional Employees during the year for the purpose of this calculation of additional deduction?

"Additional Employee" means an employee who has been employed during the financial year and whose employment has the effect of increasing the total number of employees employed by the employer as on the last day of the preceding year.

Thus, if a business hires 30 new employees during the year, but 20 old employees leave, the additional employees are only 10.

Only the following category of employees are considered for the purpose of count in new employees:

1. Salary =< 25,000 p.m.: Whose total emolument is not more than Rs. 25,000 per month. Total emolument means all costs paid or payable to the employee by any name called.

Such emolument would not include any contribution paid or payable by the employer to any pension fund or provident fund or any other fund for the benefit of the employee under any law, or any lump-sum payment paid or payable to an employee at the time of termination of his service or superannuation or voluntary retirement, such as gratuity, severance pay, leave encashment, voluntary retrenchment benefits, commutation of pension and the like.

2. PF Registered: Registered and contributing to a Recognized Provident Fund (PF). Those employees for whom the entire contribution is paid by the government under the Employees' Pension Scheme under the EPF Act are not covered. Casual workers are not covered.

3. Min. 240 Days: The employee is employed with the business for a minimum 240 days in the financial year. If an employee does not complete 240 days in a financial year, he may be considered as new employee in the next financial year when he completes these number of days.

For businesses in the operations of manufacture of apparel, footwear or leather products, the minimum number of days of employment is 150 instead of 240.

Liberties to One Person Companies (OPCs) w.e.f. 01-Apr-2021

Entrepreneurs prefer to incorporate companies over sole proprietorships owing to the benefit of limited liability, i.e. business liabilities would not extend to their personal assets as their legal identity would be different from that of the company in which they hold majority shares or controlling interest.

Further, as a sole proprietor all business profits are taxed as per slab rates in the Individual's ITR. It is also believed that companies enjoy better credibility as businesses over sole proprietorships while dealing with corporate customers.

However, minimum 2 shareholders are required to incorporate a private limited company, and minimum 3 to incorporate a public limited.

To extend the benefit of companies to individual business owners, the concept of a One Person Company (OPC) was introduced by the Companies Act, 2013. However, due to restrictions around the scale of business an OPC could operate under, the structure did not see the kind of popularity it was expected to.

To correct the approach, the Companies (Incorporation) Rules are proposed to be amended w.e.f. 01-Apr-2021 to allow OPCs to grow without any restrictions on paid-up capital and turnover.

Liberties Extended to OPCs

Non-Resident Individual: Any Indian citizen, whether resident in India or otherwise, would be allowed to form an OPC. The residency period has been proposed to be reduced to 120 days from 182 days for NRIs, for being eligible to incorporate an OPC only.

Anytime Conversion to Pvt. Ltd. or Public Co.: Earlier, an OPC could not be converted to a private limited or public company before completion of 2 years from date of incorporation. However, such restriction is now proposed to be lifted. The related e-Forms shall also be rationalized.

No Restriction on Paid Up Capital: Earlier, an OPC could not have a paid up capital of over Rs. 50 lakhs. The restriction shall be lifted.

No Restriction on Turnover: An OPC could not have an annual turnover of over Rs. 2 crores. The condition is now lifted, and there shall be no such cap on turnover for OPCs.

Source:

MCA Press Release dated 03-Feb-2021

MCA Notification dated 01-Feb-2021

Sarthak Ahuja Discusses the Union Budget 2021 (Podcast)

Our Partner, Mr. Sarthak Ahuja, was on The Indian Dream's podcast discussing the Union Budget 2021.

The discussion was around the basis for announcement of policies around infrastructural development, the objective of the government with Product Linked Incentives, tax breaks for start-ups, and how all of these are great ideas, but their long term results depend entirely on their execution.

Spotify | Google Podcast 

Budget 2021: Detailed Tax Updates from the Finance Bill 2021

This piece is an extension of our summary of the Highlights from the Budget Speech 2021.

The sections referred to herein are of the Income Tax Act, 1961, except wherever specifically mentioned being of any other Act.

No Change in Tax Rates (same as last year)

No change in tax rates for individuals, HUFs, companies, firms and others.

As earlier announced, an individual or HUF shall have the option to pay tax in respect of the total income at lower slab rates as announced last year, as part of Section 115BAC. A co-operative society shall have the option to pay tax at lower rate of 22% as per Section 115BAD

Input Tax Credit (ITC) only on Invoices/Notes Reflecting in GSTR-2A/GSTR-2B

A new clause (aa) to section 16(2) of the CGST Act is being inserted to provide that input tax credit on invoice or debit note may be availed only when the details of such invoice or debit note have been furnished by the supplier in the statement of outward supplies.

Tax Audit Turnover Threshold increased to Rs. 10 Crore (if over 95% banking transactions)

if total sales, turnover or gross receipts from business exceed Rs. 1 crore, a person is required to get his accounts audited. The threshold limit for audit u/s 44AB was increased to Rs. 5 crores last year if minimum 95% of all receipts and payments were made through banking or digital channels. This limit has now been increased to Rs. 10 crore.

No Requirement of Professional Certified GST Annual Return & Reconciliation

Section 35(5) of the CGST Act is being omitted so as to remove the mandatory requirement of getting annual accounts audited and reconciliation statement submitted by specified professional.

Section 44 of the CGST Act is being substituted so as to remove the mandatory requirement of furnishing a reconciliation statement duly audited by specified professional and to provide for filing of the annual return on self-certification basis.

Linking of Foreign Exchange Remittance in Case of Export of Goods with Refund

Section 16 of the IGST Act is being amended so as to link the foreign exchange remittance in case of export of goods with refund.

Further, such amendment will propose to restrict the zero-rated supply on payment of integrated tax only to a notified class of taxpayers or notified supplies of goods or services.

Timely Payment of PF and Other Such Statutory Dues to Claim Deduction from Business Profit

If any sum towards contribution to any provident fund or superannuation fund or gratuity fund or any other fund for the welfare of the employees is actually paid by the assessee on or before the due date for such payment, only then will the same be allowed as deduction as expense for the purpose of computing taxable profit.

Budget Speech 2021: Tax Highlights

Here are a few highlights from the Budget Speech this morning. Detailed analysis of the same shall follow soon after our study of the Memorandum to the Finance Bill 2021.

Relevant for Businesses

Tax Audit Turnover Threshold: The turnover threshold for mandatory requirement of Tax Audit has been increased from Rs. 5 crores to Rs. 10 crores if less than 5% of the gross receipts and total expenses are through modes other than banking channels.

Late deposit of employee's contribution of PF shall not be allowed as deduction from income for the purpose of tax calculation.

Small Companies: Definition under Companies Act, 2013 to change as follows:
a) Paid up share capital threshold: from Rs. 50 lakh to Rs. 2 crore
b) Turnover threshold: from Rs. 2 crore to Rs. 20 crore

Incentivised incorporation of One Person Companies (OPC) by proposing:
- No restriction on paid-up capital and turnover
- Allowing easier conversion of OPC to any other type of company
- Reducing residency limit from 182 days to 120 days
- Allowing NRIs to incorporate OPCs in India

Margin money requirements for start-ups to reduce from 25% to 15%.

New Customs Duty structure to be put into place by 01-Oct-2021:
- Revoking ADD and CVD on certain steel products
- Reducing duties on copper scrap from 5% to 2.5%
- Few mobiles parts to move from NIL to 2.5% rate
- Cutting duty on copper scrap 2.5% from 5%
- Exempting duty on steel scrap for a specified period

Eligibility for tax holiday claim for start-ups extended by one more year. This applies to start-ups recognized by the Inter-Ministerial Board and not those registered solely under the Start Up India scheme.

Capital gains exemption for investment in start-ups extended till 31-Mar-2022. This should be under section 54EE of the Income Tax Act, whereby you invest in a start-up fund notified by the Govt. It does not apply to investing money in your own or a friend's start-up.

Relevant for Individuals

Prefilled Income Tax Return: The online filing portal would have pre-filled income from salaries, interest incomes, dividends, etc. for easier online filing of tax by an individual assessee. No tax relief though.

Advance Tax liability on Dividend incomes shall arise only after the declaration of dividend.

For Senior Citizens of age 75 years and above: Exemption from filing tax returns if earning only pension and interest incomes. The banks shall deduct the full amount of tax liability as TDS. No tax-saving though.

Additional exemption of housing loan interest up to Rs. 1.5 lakhs under section 80EEA on loan taken for affordable housing projects covered under this section extended by a year for loans taken up to 31-Mar-2022. In such cases, the stamp duty value of the house should not be over Rs. 45 lakhs.