Service Tax On Website And Mobile Ads From 1st Oct

Service Tax On Website And Mobile Ads From 1st Oct Make Money Online Queries? Struggling To Get Traffic To Your Blog? Sign Up On (HBB) Forum Now!Service Tax On Website And Mobile Ads From 1st OctUpdated On 10/01/2016Author : HBB Guest AuthorTopic : BloggingShort URL : http://hbb.me/1lFzIkP CONNECT WITH HBB ON SOCIAL MEDIA Follow @HellBoundBlogThe Budget 2014 brought in a major amendment which has impacted the whole online industry and especially the content industry wherein most of the Indian bloggers earn money through Ad Sales. Arun Jaitley while presenting the Budget 2014 announced that now Service Tax @ 12.36% would also be levied on Ad Sales on Digital Media i.e. Websites Mobiles.The date from which the Service Tax on Online Ad Sales would be applicable was not announced. However, last week on 25th August â€" the Ministry of Finance released Notification No. 18-2014 stating that Service Tax on Ad Sales on Websites and Mobiles would be applicable from 1st Oct 2014. The same has been reaffirmed by Pt 1.3 of this letter dated 2 5th Aug.Service Tax On Website And Mobile AdsWhat Is Service Tax? When any good is manufactured in a factory â€" Excise Duty is levied. When any good is sold in retail â€" VAT is levied. Similarly, when any service is provided â€" Service Tax is levied. These 3 are the most common types of Indirect Taxes which are levied on a business.Service Tax is levied on all types of services in India except a few specified services. Earlier, Ad Sales on Websites and Mobiles was also included in these specified services (also known as Negative List of Services) but from 1st Oct 2014, Digital Ad Sales won’t form a part of the Negative List and therefore Service Tax would be levied.From 1st July 2012 till 30th Sept 2014, Digital Ad Sales were specifically exempted from the levy of Service Tax. However, from 1st Oct 2014 Service Tax @ 12.36% would be applicable on all digital ad sales. It is pertinent to note here that other services provided by Website owners like Affiliate Sales, SEO Consultan cy, Commission Income etc were earlier as well chargeable to service tax and would now also be chargeable to Service Tax.Computation of Service TaxThis Service Tax is not to be paid by the Businessman from his own pocket but is required to be collected from the person to whom the sale has been made. Let me explain this with the help of an example.The best example which I can think of and which most of you would be able to correlate with is the Internet Bill or the Telephone Bill. Over and above your usage charges, these service providers levy Service Tax @ 12.36%. The Service Tax collected from you by the Service Provider is deposited with the Govt. Therefore, the component of Service Tax collected from you does not go into the pockets of the Service Provider as it is deposited with the Govt.READFilmora Released Its Most Important Upgrade - Filmora9Just like these Telecom Service providers charge Service Tax from you and deposit the same with the Govt, the website owner on whose web site the ad has been displayed would be required to collect the same from the company whose product is being advertised.The manner of levy of Service Tax would be as follows:-Ad Sales Rs.20,00,000Service Tax @ 12.36% Rs.2,47,200Total amount payable (incl. of Service Tax) Rs. 22,47,200This Rs. 2,47,200 collected as Service Tax would then be required to be deposited with the Govt. In case you don’t collect this amount and only charge Rs. 20,00,000 it would be deemed that Rs. 20,00,000 charged is inclusive of Service Tax and in that case the Website owners would be required to pay Service Tax from their own pocket.Exemption from Service TaxCertain exemptions are available from levy of Service Tax which are as follows:-1. Export of Service: If any Service is exported out of India, Service Tax would not be levied on such export of service.2. Small Scale Exemption: Small scale service provider i.e. whose aggregate total value of all services provided during the year to a ll service recipients from all services does not exceed Rs. 10 Lakh can claim Small Scale Exemption. The Rs. 10 Lakh turnover would be computed after excluding the export Sales.Additional Compliance Burden for Website OwnersThe levy of Service Tax will lead to additional compliance burden for Website owners as the following additional things would now be required to be done:-1. Apply for Service Tax Registration2. Collect the Service Tax from the Company who product is being advertised.3. Deposit the Service Tax with the Govt.4. File Service Tax Returns twice every year.This article has been authored by CA Karan Batra from Chartered Club which is a QA Forum for all your Tax Queries.