Procedure for Service Tax Registration

Procedure for Service Tax Registration

Registration:

Every person liable for paying the service tax shall make an application to the concerned Superintendent of Central Excise in Form ST-1 for registration within a period of thirty days from the date on which the service tax under section 66 of the Finance Act, 1994(32 of 1994) is levied:

Provided that where a person commences the business of providing a taxable service after such service has been levied, he shall make an application for registration within a period of thirty days from the date of such commencement. (Refer section 69 of Finance Act, 1994 & Rule 4 of the Service Tax Rules, 1994)

Also, the following two categories of persons have been identified as ‘Special Category of Persons’ under The Service Tax (Registration of Special Category of Persons) Rules, 2005:

·         Input Service Distributor;

·         Any provider of taxable service whose ‘aggregate value of taxable service’ (‘aggregate value’ has been defined in Rule 2(b) of The Service Tax (Registration of Special Category of Persons) Rules, 2005) in a financial year exceeds ten lakh rupees.

Steps & Procedure for Registration:

1.    The assessee shall make an application in form ST 1 to the Superintendent of Central Excise in duplicate. Such application can be filed online www.aces.gov.in. For this the following procedure shall be adhered to:

·         The user shall first log onto the website ACES and select “Service Tax” option on the left side of the screen

·         He shall then register himself by clicking on “New users to click here to register with ACES” option. On clicking the same he will be required to give certain basic details and a e-mail id. The password for such registration will be sent to this mail id.

·         On submitting the form the password will be sent to the ID above and the user shall login into ACES with this password. Such a password is only to gain access to ACES and it does not imply that registration with the department is done.

·         In the case of an existing assessee, he shall fill in the “Declaration Form for ACES” (in Appendix I) and submit it to the respective commissionerate. The assessee will then receive a user ID and password at the mail ID specified in such form to activate his registration number in ACES. An existing assessee is NOT required to fill Form ST-1 again in ACES.

·         For a new assessee who does not have a service tax registration certificate, shall register with ACES with the ID and password that is sent as mentioned in the third point and select the option “REG” and “Fill ST-1”.

·         The form shall be filed online with all the required details and submitted online itself.

·         A print of the form submitted online shall be taken and along with this the documents as mentioned in 5 below shall be submitted to the department at the concerned commissionerate.

2.    The application shall be filed within 30 days from the date of providing taxable service and shall bear the address sought to be registered

3.    The application should be filled up carefully without errors and columns and boxes which are not applicable may contain “NA” stated across them. All the taxable services provided should be mentioned on the application and there would not be separate applications for each of such taxable services

4.    The Form should be signed by the director/partner/sole proprietor as the case may be or the authorized signatory.

5.    The application shall be accompanied by copies of the following documents -

·         Self certified copy of PAN, (where allotment is pending, copy of the application for PAN may be given)

·         Copy of MOA/AOA in case of Companies

·         Copy of Board Resolution in case of Companies

·         Copy of Lease deed/Rental agreement of the premises

·         A brief technical write up on the services provided

·         Registration certificate of Partnership firm

·    Copy of a valid Power of Attorney where the owner/MD/Managing Partner does not file the application

6.    Once filed, the acknowledgement for having filed the application is to be obtained on the duplicate copy for one’s own reference

7.    If the Particulars stated in the Form are correct, then the registration certificate would be provided within a period of seven days. Where not so provided, the registration is deemed to have been granted.

Centralized registration:

Centralised registration is opted for in a case where the accounting and billing operations of the assessee are centralized in an administrative office which may be a branch or Head Office despite the services being provided from more than one location. The premises that is registered here is the one where the centralized accounting and billing is done. This decision is at the option of the tax payer and he can also opt to have multiple registration which however may not be advisable. The procedure would be the same as explained above with a few exceptions:

1.    The registration in case of centralized registration would be granted by the Commissioner of Central Excise having jurisdiction over the centralized premises

2.    The registration formality at the department’s end takes a little longer than the period stated above and the concept of deemed registration need not apply here.

The following documents are required in addition to the documents needed under the aforesaid procedure -

·       Proof of address of each such premises or branches for which centralized registration is sought

·       Proof of address of branches, new offices opened if any