Registration Under Goods and Service Tax Act (GST)

GST being a tax on the event of “supply”, every supplier needs to get registered. However, small businesses having all India aggregate turnover below Rupees 20 lakh (10 lakhs if business is in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Nagaland or Tripura) need not register. The small businesses, having turnover below the threshold limit can, however, voluntarily opt to register.

The aggregate turnover includes supplies made by him on behalf of his principals, but excludes the value of job worked goods if he is a job worker. But persons who are engaged exclusively in the business of supplying goods or services or both that are not liable to tax or wholly exempt from tax or an agriculturist, to the extent of supply of produce out of cultivation of land are not liable to register under GST. Also, if all the supplies being made by a supplier are taxable under reverse charge, there is no requirement for such a supplier to register in light of Notification No. 5/2017-Central Tax dated 19.06.2017

Various type of Registration under GST are as :-

  • Normal Taxpayer
  • Tax Deductor at Source
  • Tax Collector at Source
  • Non Resident Taxable Person
  • Non Resident Online Service Provider
  • UN Bodies, Embassies or other notified person

Need and advantages of registration :-
Registration will confer the following advantages to a taxpayer:

  • He is legally recognized as supplier of goods or services.
  • He is legally authorized to collect tax from his customers and pass on the credit of the taxes paid on the goods or services supplied to the purchasers/ recipients.
  • He can claim input tax credit of taxes paid and can utilize the same for payment of taxes due on supply of goods or services.
  • Seamless flow of Input Tax Credit from suppliers to recipients at the national level.

Compulsory Registration under GST :-
There are certain categories of suppliers who are required to get compulsory registration under GST irrespective of their turnover value

Some of such examples are –

  1. Inter-state suppliers of goods; However, interstate supplier of services are exempted from obtaining registration subject to certain conditions stated in Notification No. 10/2017-Integrated Tax dated 13.10.2017.
  2. A person receiving supplies on which tax is payable by recipient on reverse charge basis
  3. Casual Taxable Person. However where he makes supplies of specified handicraft goods need not take compulsory registration and are entitled to the threshold exemption of Rs. 20 Lakhs. Handicraft goods are specified in Notification no. 33/2017-Central Tax dated 15.09.2017 as amended by Notification no. 38/2017-Central Tax dated 13.10.2017
  4. Non-Resident Taxable Persons
  5. E-commerce operators
  6. Suppliers of goods who supply through such e-commerce operator who are liable to collect tax at source.
  7. Those ecommerce operators who are notified as liable for GST payment under Section 9(5) of the CGST Act, 2017
  8. TDS Deductor
  9. Input service distributor
  10. Those supplying online information and data base access or retrieval services from outside India to a non-registered person in India.