India’s most awaited tax reform, Goods and Services Tax is put in the lok sabha and passed as “The Constitution (One Hundred And Twenty-Second Amendment) Bill, 2014”. GST hailed plaguing the indirect tax structure of the country. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is proposed to be comprehensive tax levy on manufacture, sale and consumption of goods as well as services at a national level. Integration of goods and services tax would give India a world class tax system and improve tax collection. Presently, there are parallel systems of indirect taxation at the Centre and State levels. Each of the systems needs to be reformed and eventually harmonized. GST will subsume several indirect taxes and eliminate the cascading effects of multiple layers of taxation which is currently expected in the range of about 22%- 27% and make imports cheaper and exports more competitive. GST is proposed to facilitate seamless credit across the entire supply chain and across all states under a common tax. Though, it is expected that there would still be restriction on the setoff of CGST to SGST and All this would be the harbinger of many new professional opportunities for tax professionals. It is the time for tax professional to grab this opportunity and make their practice settled in indirect taxes. There are many areas in which indirect tax professionals make their future bright. Some of opportunities are as under:

  • Tax structuring
  • Registration
  • Representation before revenue authorities in respect to SCN/Appeal
  • Legal opinion and procedural Guidance to clients
  • Filing Periodical Returns and periodical audits
  • Updating and getting abreast of the budget changes/other changes
  • Refund proceedings of indirect taxes
  • Training/ teaching, writing articles, assisting in drafting the notification or authoring.

Currently the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) focus to develop scope of indirect practice for its members. There are many seminars and course conducted by ICAI in recent years and provide useful study material on its public domain free of cost. In the authors view these publications are very useful and should be kept in office library for indirect tax practice. Some of material are below:

Goods & Service Tax

Service Tax

VAT related to Various States

[Author is Member of ICAI and currently deal the Service Tax matters in Jaipur (Raj) The above article ‘ Indirect Taxation : New Avenues for Tax Professional ‘ is written to make available information of Free but very useful publication of ICAI.]

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Download CBEC Service Tax Education Guide : Taxation of Services.pdf