Taxmann GST on Financial Services By Vinod Kothari Edition 2018

Taxmann GST on Financial Services By Vinod Kothari Edition 2018

Taxmann GST on Financial Services By Vinod Kothari Edition 2018

Description

The introduction of a comprehensive, value-added, destinationbased tax on goods and services in India, in form of the Goods and Services Tax, is a marquee reform in the tax scenario in India. The comprehensive nature of the tax introduces fungibility across different taxes, and therefore, greatly resolves the cascading nature of taxes. As implementation of the law gradually progresses, its implications, and complications, if any, will get revealed. This Book is a Guide to GST with reference to fi nancial services. Needless to emphasise, the fi nancial sector is one of the most important sectors for the country, as the real sector has to depend for funding, settlements, resource transfers, and risk transfers upon the fi nancial sector. The idea in most global jurisdictions has been to keep the fi nancial sector immune from any burden of goods and services taxes, as fi nancial transactions occur with tremendous velocity, and the minutest tax friction may amount to substantial ultimate tax burden of goods and services. However, India has chosen to selectively identify those fi nancial transactions on which GST is not payable – the list being quite small. Hence, there is a natural concern in structuring fi nancial transactions so as to get exposed to taxes, so as to lead to uneven playing fi eld. Primarily fi nancial transactions such as interest in case of loans and advances, and issue, redemption, transfers and servicing of securities are exempt from GST. However, there are several complex fi nancial transactions which may deviate in form, but not in substance, from plain vanilla loans and transactions in securities. These may create potential tax issues. This book gets in nuances of GST on several financial services – lending, services and fee incomes connected with lending transactions, transfers of receivables, securitization, leasing, fund management, broking, etc. In terms of structure, the book first builds on the essential principles of GST, though tailored from the perspective of financial services, and then takes each of the major financial services, and discuss the GST implications for each. The third section of the Book is a bunch of structured, frequently asked questions on GST on financial services. The different chapters in the book have been primarily contributed by several of our colleagues. However, they have all been carefully stitched together to form a consistent commentary on the subject. We have great pleasure in presenting this book to the financial services fraternity, tax advisers, and others who may be concerned with GST on financial services. We will look forward to constructive dialogue with readers