:12 am, by Saju.

This post is aiming to give you some basic knowledge that required for registration,
payment and return of service tax.

Service tax was implemented in India in the year 1994. It is the tax payable by the service
provider; only except some cases service receiver should pay the tax under method
reverse charge; we will discuss this topic later.

When a service provider is liable to pay tax?

If you are providing a taxable service and your last year turnover is less than 10 lakh, you
need not pay service tax in current financial year. Whenever you cross the limit 10 lakh
your service is become taxable.

Service tax registration

You need registration immediately after the turnover crosses 9 lakhs. Or if you starting a
new business and sure about annual turnover will cross 10 lakh need to register with
Superintend of central excise. You should register within 30 days of commencement of
business.

For registration assesse should fill and submit a form called ST1.Now this can be done
through ACES website. If you are providing multiple services,mention all those in ST-1
Take a printout and approach superintend under whose jurisdiction your company falls.

Documents Required for Registration

1. PAN Card copy

2. Address Proof
3. Evidence of the constitution of the company or partnership.
4. List of Directors or partners

After verifying, your certificate of registration will be issued within seven days in the
form ST-2, in which you can find your Registration number and premises code. You can
also check your ST-2 online by logging in ACES site under REG menu.

The service tax code contains 15 digits, See the code explanation below.
If you are providing services from different locations you can take separate registration
for each premise under the same PAN, only the last 3 digit will change serially. Also
centralized registration can be avail if the assesse willing to do so. For centralized
registration you must have a centralized billing or accounting system; and Centralized
registration will be given by commissioner in who’s the jurisdiction the office of the
centralized billing or accounting system exists.

Service tax Rate

Present rate of service tax is 10% and Education cess is 2% on service tax, and higher
secondary education cess is 1% on service tax .Hence the total rate of service tax is
10.3%

Service tax payment due date

Tax should be paid on quarterly basis for sole trader, partnership etc, and monthly
payment are mandatory for others. Payment should within 5th day of the end of the month
or quarter. June month or quarter of Junepayment should be paid on or before 5 th of July.
For electronic tax payers, can pay tax up to 6th.

Service tax payment on March

There are some exemptions for the payment of March month or last quarter. Service tax
of March month or quarter of March should be paid on or before 31st March. This will
create some problem for tax payers to calculate last few days tax. To solve this problem
you are permitted to pay excess amount up to 50000.00 and can be adjusted in subsequent
payment.

Mandatory E-Payment of service tax

Electronic payment of service tax is compulsory for those tax payers who had paid 50
lakhs or more tax in the previous year. For others it is not compulsory but can make e-
payment if they are willing.

What to do if last date of service tax payment is a Public holiday?

You don’t need to worry about it; you can pay tax on next working day

Interest on late payment of service tax

Tax payer is liable to pay interest on late payment of service tax up to the period of delay.
The present rate of interest is 13% per annum. Consider April month tax is paying on
May 15th. Due date is 5th of May so you have to consider interest period from 6th May to
14th May i.e, 9 days interest is to be paid.
How to pay service tax

Tax should be paid in thefilled Chelan GAR-7 signed by authorized person, submit to the
authorized bank like SBI, IOB, Indian bank etc.along with the payable amount by cash or
cheque. Presenting cheque on the last date of payment is sufficient and will be treated as
tax paid on time if cheque is not returned. Only one copy is required for the payment of
service tax by using GAR-7.The counter foil containing bank seal with IFS Code and
Chelan number will be given to tax payer.Nowadays bank started to give a separate
printed receipt called “EASIEST RECIPT” which gives clear information about Chelan
number, Bank IFS Code etc.

Service tax Credit

Credit can be taken against input services paid and can be utilized for the payment of
service tax. Input service means any service availed inrelation to your business. You can
deduct the input service tax paid from payable service tax. We will provide a detailed
post about cenvat credit later.

Account code for service tax payment.

For service tax payment, each service has separate account code. Likewise Interest and
penalty for each service has separate account code. Cess and interest oncess has
separate account code which is commonfor all services. To make it clear refer below
example chart

Payment on Account code

Service tax 00440045
Interest, penalty on service tax 00440046
Cess 00440298
Interest on cess 00440299

Filing of service tax return

Service tax return must be submitted half yearly. i.e, April to September and October to
March. First half yearly return must be on or before 25th of October and second half
yearly return submitted on or before April 25th. Return must be submitted in Form ST-3
along with the evidence of payment that is Chelan copy. Now you can submit service tax
return online through ACES website

Revised Service tax return

Revised service tax return is allowed once within ninety day of filing of return to rectify
the first return.
Consequences of late filing of service tax return

Late fee and penalty chargeable for return submitted late. The late fee will be up to a
maximum of Rs 2000.00, Refer the late fee payment chart below. This should be paid by
you without any intimation from service tax department.

Period of delay Late fee amount

Up to 15 days 500.00
16 to 30 days 1000.00
31 days onward Rs 1000.00+ Rs 100.00 per day
up to maximum Rs 2000.00

Hope that the post is a useful. Your comments on this post are invited. If you like this
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