As the Government is all set to roll out the Goods and Services Tax Act from 1st July, the 16th Meeting of the GST Council held at New Delhi decided to exempt Advocates, including Senior Advocates from obtaining CGST Registration under section 23(2) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.
Last month, the GST Council has approved a four-tier tax slab for service tax instead of the current uniform tax rate. As per the schedule released by the Central Board of Excise and Customs, following the 14th GST meeting, the services provided by Lawyers and Law Firms to any person including a business entity having a turnover of below 20 lakhs is exempted under the proposed indirect tax net.
Services provided by the Senior Advocates, which were brought under the tax net in the year 2016 was continued to be taxed under the GST regime. However, the services provided to any person other than a business entity and a business entity having a turnover of below 20 lakhs are out of the ambit of GST.
Subsequently, the Council approved the list of services under Reverse Charge as per which, RCM will be applicable to services provided by the individual advocate or Law Firm to a business entity. However, it was not clarified that whether it is applicable to services provided by Senior Advocates also. If RCM is applicable to Senior Lawyers, the question remains is that what will be their liability towards the services provided to Lawyers/ Law Firms?.
Individual sponsorship service providers (including players) are also exempted from registration under section 23(2) of the Act.
Read the full text of the decisions taken in the 16th GST Council meeting.
