The Central Government on Monday clarified that all legal services provided by advocates are taxable under the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) law under reverse charge basis. This is applicable to Senior Advocates also.
Earlier drafting had created a lot of confusion among the stakeholders.
A corrigendum issued by the Government said that “Services provided by an individual advocate including a senior advocate or firm of advocates by way of legal services, directly or indirectly.
For this purpose, “legal service” means any service provided in relation to advice, consultancy or assistance in any branch of law, in any manner and includes representational services before any court, tribunal or authority.”
Under the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act, advocates and senior advocates are not bound to obtain registration under the new tax regime.
Earlier, only the representative services were subject to RCM method.
Now, as per the new corrigendum, no advocate is required to register now under GST since all services by advocate will come under RCM.
The Delhi High Court, on last week, while granting tax relief to the Senior Advocates from paying Service Tax on forward charge basis, held that the department cannot recover tax from the Advocates for the period 1st April 2016 to 5th June 2016.
Read the Full Text of the Notification Below
