In order to eliminate ambiguities and avoid litigation due to inaccurate or flawed valuation of goods and services, valuation methods have been provided by the law which act as guidelines to businesses while determining the accurate taxable value.
One of the sea changes brought about by the GST era is the way we determine the value of goods and services.
As a business, one needs to be aware of the changes in the valuation method and also how to go about valuation in some special cases, for e.g. additional charges / discounts, branch transfers (which are taxable under GST) and when a supply is made with money not being the consideration.
In order to eliminate ambiguities and avoid litigation due to inaccurate or flawed valuation of goods and services, valuation methods have been provided by the law which act as guidelines to businesses while determining the accurate taxable value.
Valuation of Taxable Supplies under GST
In the previous tax regime, different methods were adopted to determine the value of the supply, for e.g. –
a) Excise – Based on transaction value or quantity of goods or MRP
b) VAT – Based on sale value
c) Service Tax – Based on taxable value of taxable service rendered
However, in the GST regime, the value of goods and / or services supplied will solely be the transaction value, i.e. the price paid / payable at each point in the supply chain.
Additional Charges & Expenses
This may lead us to our next question – how do we account for additional charges and expenses, such as discount, packing charges etc. – under the GST regime? Should they be included or excluded from the transaction value?
Similarly, the following are some charges/expenses of supply, which are included in the transaction value –
a) Incidental expenses such as commission
b) Interest/late fee/penalty charged by supplier for delayed payment
c) Subsidies excluding those provided by the Central and State governments
d) Any tax other than GST
e) Any amount payable by supplier, but incurred by receiver
Thus, the transnational value is basis, for including or excluding the charges, in the valuation under GST.
The gold reserves remained unchanged at $19.943 billion.
The country’s foreign exchange reserves rose by USD 163.8 million to touch a new life-time high of USD 393.612 billion in the week ended August 11, helped by rise in foreign currency assets (FCAs), the Reserve Bank data showed.
In the previous week, the reserves had increased by USD 581.1 million to USD 393.448 billion.
FCAs, a major portion of the overall reserves, rose by USD 175.6 million to USD 369.899 billion, the data showed.
Expressed in US dollar terms, FCAs include effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies such as the euro, the pound and the yen held in the reserves.
The gold reserves remained unchanged at USD 19.943 billion.
The special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) declined by USD 5.8 million to USD 1.498 billion.
The country’s reserve position with the IMF also dipped by USD 6 million to USD 2.271 billion, the apex bank said.
Enforcement action by the income tax department will be reserved for cases where specific tip-offs regarding large-scale tax evasions have been received
The income tax department will maintain the number of income tax returns (ITRs) chosen for scrutiny at the current level of less than 1% of all returns, in spite of a surge in individual tax filings to keep the process non-intrusive and taxpayer-friendly.
Gentle persuasion through text messages, emails and advertisements will remain the department’s main ways of interacting with taxpayers, while enforcement action will be reserved for cases where specific tip-offs regarding large-scale evasions have been received.
Out of the 52.8 million income-tax returns filed for the 2015-16 fiscal year, only about 300,000 cases, or around 0.6%, were scrutinized, a person privy to the deliberations within the tax department said on condition of anonymity.
“Even when the number of our assessees grow, scrutiny will be limited to this level—250,000-400,000 cases. It will always be less than 1% of returns received. We are absolutely non-intrusive to almost everyone. Even in most of the cases scrutinized, we do not hold searches or surveys,” the person cited above said, adding that the income-tax department vests its faith in taxpayers.
Searches conducted by the tax authorities—about 600 such cases happen in a year—will also stay at this level in future. “Only when we get very, very specific information of tax evasion of a substantial amount, we take enforcement action,” said the person.
The department recently sent 17 million text messages to individuals urging them to file returns for fiscal 2017 before the due date of 5 August, said the official.
This has led to a 25% jump in personal income-tax return filings for fiscal year 2016-17 to 27.9 million before the due date compared to the same period in the previous year.
Going by past trends, this figure could rise to about 66 million returns by the end of March 2018. Returns for a particular fiscal year can be filed by the end of the next year, called the assessment year, with interest on tax dues if any.
Close to three-fifths of the 52.8 million returns the department received for 2015-16 had come in after the due date in August 2016.
“Engaging with people through electronic means is easy and is a better strategy to ensure compliance than scrutinizing more tax returns. It is important for taxpayers to meticulously keep a record of their financial matters to remain compliant,” said Rahul Garg, a partner at consulting firm PwC India.
The income-tax department is also processing refunds faster. It has started issuing refunds within 10 days to taxpayers who have met the 5 August deadline for filing returns.
Individuals who make large purchases, such as houses, or cars priced above Rs10 lakh, but do not file income-tax returns figure among those who receive gentle reminders to file their returns as the authority secures information about such transactions from other sources.
Linking the permanent account number (PAN) used in filing tax returns with Aadhaar, the 12-digit number issued by Unique Identification Authority of India that identifies individuals using biometrics, is also enabling officials to check if the investments and spending of income-tax assessees are in line with their known sources of income.
So far, 94 million PANs have been linked with Aadhaar numbers after the central government made quoting the unique identification number compulsory for the filing of income-tax returns from July onwards.
It already touched a new high of $393.61 billion as on August 11, 2017, and the pace of forex reserves accretion has been the strongest since 2005.
India’s foreign exchange reserves are set to hit the $400-billion mark. It already touched a new high of $393.61 billion as on August 11, 2017, and the pace of forex reserves accretion has been the strongest since 2005.
The gain in the country’s forex reserves has been one of the strongest in Asia in the past 12 months.
India remains among the top-ten countries in forex reserve position and has a comfortable import cover of 12 months, as against the norm of three months.
India’s forex reserves touched an all-time low of $5.8 billion at end of March 1991, which could barely finance three weeks’ worth of imports.
It led the Centre to airlift national gold reserves as a pledge to the IMF in exchange for a loan to cover balance of payment debts.
The rise in forex reserves has been because of robust foreign direct and institutional investment flows, which made the rupee appreciate over 6% since January this year.
As a result of high forex reserves, the Economic Survey volume 2 has highlighted that most reserve-based external sector vulnerability indicators have improved.
The tax authorities now have the ability to analyse the data they get from multiple sources to identify evaders.
Income tax authorities plan to pursue those who have properties in their name but haven’t ever filed income tax returns on the suspicion that these may be benami holdings on behalf of people looking to conceal their wealth. The exercise is part of the government’s crackdown on black money.
The findings have emerged from the analysis of vast amounts of data that the government has collected. “We have a lot of data from various sources including on investments in property by people who have never filed returns,” said an income tax official. This information will be verified to ascertain the source of income used for the purchase of the properties and to see if these are being held by benami owners.
Enforcement action will be taken only in cases where there is concrete evidence, the official said. Otherwise, tax authorities will follow a non-intrusive approach. In some instances, the properties purchased exceed the income declared and in others, no income tax return has been filed.
The tax authorities now have the ability to analyse the data they get from multiple sources to identify evaders.
Spending and investment data are used to create profiles of individuals and matched with incomes declared in returns. Aside from this, more than 550,000 people have been identified for further probe as part of the second phase of Operation Clean Money for having deposited cash incommensurate with their declared income.
Besides this, some individuals reportedly carried out property transactions after demonetisation. The government had resolved to put in place a stringent framework to deal with black money soon after taking over in May 2014, in line with election promises. It has since taken a series of measures including the establishment of a special investigation team on black money and put in place a new law to deal with undisclosed overseas assets, apart from the benami legislation. Demonetisation of the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in November last year was also pitched as a battle against black money.
The income-tax department launched Operation Clean Money soon after the demonetisation exercise. It identified 1.8 million persons for e-verification of large cash deposits.
The department has now moved on to phase two of the operation, which also includes a crackdown on benami properties.
The Benami Properties (Prohibition) Act empowers the income tax authorities to confiscate and prosecute both the depositor and the person whose illegal money he or she has “adjusted” in their account. It attracts a heavy fine that could be as much 25% of the fair market value of the asset and rigorous imprisonment of up to seven years.
ET View: Bring Real Estate Under GST Real estate is a sink for money laundering. The annual information returns, that identify potential tax payers by examining their spending patterns, is useful to track evaders. Property registrars also file information returns. As the department gets a mine of information, it must deploy big data analytics to analyse these transactions. The need is also to bring real estate under the ambit of the goods and services tax to curb benami deals.
In what could bring relief to small taxpayers with cash flow issues, CBEC has extended the deadline for taxpayers claiming input tax credit on transition (pre-GST) stocks to file the first interim returns for July by a week to August 28.
In what could bring relief to small taxpayers with cash flow issues, the Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC) has extended the deadline for taxpayers claiming input tax credit on transition (pre-GST) stocks to file the first interim returns for July by a week to August 28. However, these taxpayers will have to settle their tax liability by the earlier deadline of August 20.
The deadline for filing returns will continue to be August 20 for assessees who do not opt to claim ITC in July for goods bought before the GST roll-out. “The taxpayers who want to avail the transitional input tax credit should also calculate their tax liability after estimating the amount of transitional credit as per Form TRANS I. They have to make full settlement of the liability after adjusting the transitional input tax credit before 20th August, 2017,” the CBEC said.
The board, however, added that in such cases, the taxpayers will get time till August 28 to submit Form TRANS I and Form 3B on the GST Network, the IT back end. “In case of shortfall in the amount already paid vis-à-vis the amount payable on submission of Form 3B, the same will have to be paid with interest at18% for the period between 21st August, 2017 till the payment of such differential amount,” the CBEC added.
Also, the GST Network is expected to release TRAN-1 and TRAN-2 forms — to be used for claiming ITC on transition stock – on August 21. These new forms will have provision for claiming ITC for pre-GST stocks, addressing the industry’s concerns over absence of the same in the earlier Form 3B.
“While past input tax credit might not bother multinationals and large companies, smaller companies can’t afford to let their working capital inflate,” R.N Iyer, managing director of the GST suvudha provider Vayana Network said.
Although the initial trends suggested a slow rate of tax filings, GSTN officials said that most a substantial chunk of taxpayers tend to file their return on the last two days of the deadline. “GSTN system is capable of handling even half the total load of filers on the last two days as the redundancy was built based on a study that showed the same return-filing trend even in VAT regime,” the official had said.
Till August 5, nearly 87 lakh taxpayers had registered on the GSTN portal as taxpayers under GST. Of this, nearly 71 lakh businesses have migrated from earlier VAT or central excise or service tax regime, while 16 lakh new taxpayers too have registered with the portal. The GSTN had earlier said over 30% of the firms registered on the portal had not completed the second form. This would prevent these businesses from filing returns.
Many cos don’t know whether the govt will rectify this problem by Friday and are following different options for resolving the quandary.
A top conglomerate may have to shell out a bit extra in advance tax this quarter due to an unusual glitch in the tax returns form. Another Delhi-based firm, which does not want to bear any extra tax, may simply deduct the dues before the GST kicked in on July 1 and pay a smaller net amount.
The absence of a column in the new GST form for claiming credit on sales made before July 1 this year is causing a lot of worries for India Inc as the filing deadline for the first month of tax returns under GST comes up this week.
Many companies don’t know whether the government will rectify this problem by Friday, the deadline for filing returns, and are following different options for resolving the quandary. Multinationals and some of India’s biggest companies are not taking into account past input credit while paying GST while smaller companies that can’t afford to let their working capital rise are paying the tax after deducting the input tax credit.
“A procedural lapse by the government doesn’t take away companies’ right to what’s prescribed in the law. GST law prescribes that companies can adjust past credits with July and August liabilities,” said the CFO of a Delhi-based company.
Industry trackers, however, say that doing so may be “technically incorrect.” “Certain businesses may prefer being cautious and pay the tax for July and August without considering the opening credit balance, while other businesses would adjust the credit and pay the tax, leading to disparities in tax treatment from the first GST return,” said MS Mani, partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells.
The deadline for filing the GST Transition Credit Form, titled GSTTran 1, is September 28, while that of making payments for July and August is much earlier. There is no column in GSTR 3B form where companies can mention the advance taxes paid before July 1. The government had said last week that it would sort out the issue, but with just four days left for filing the GSTR 3B form companies are not waiting for clarification.
“Companies are puzzled by what they should be doing and why they could be required to fork out large sums as GST in July and August and the apparent inability of the government to simply permit the utilisation of the opening credit while computing the tax liability for July and August,” said a tax expert advising four of the biggest Indian companies.
Back of envelope calculations by two tax consultants show Indian companies may end up paying anywhere around Rs 13,000 crore more to government for July and August. If this happens, working capital costs are likely to rise across the board.
“There would be a significant impact on the working capital of several companies if they are not permitted to use the opening balance of credits. It does appear that the legislative intent of permitting carrying forward of credit from the earlier regime without any timing intervals has not been appropriately reflected in the GST returns for July and August,” said Mani.The government may just see a windfall gain for July and August GST in advance tax collection thanks to this procedural lapse.
ET View: Clear the Air The GST Council should clear the air to avoid disputes. The purpose of GST is to provide set offs across the production and value chain to avoid tax on tax and cascading tax rates for goods and services. Rightly, the compliance regime was easy to start with. A true picture on how well GST is working would be known when companies start getting refunds on the taxes paid by them. So, procedural lapses, if any, must be corrected to remove any confusion for companies.
It led the Centre to airlift national gold reserves as a pledge to the IMF in exchange for a loan to cover balance of payment debts.
