The Goods and Services Tax is a unified, multi-stage, and consumption-based tax levied on the supply of goods or services, combining all stages such as manufacture, sale and consumption of goods and services. It functions at a national level in order to replace most of the national and state tax systems like VAT, service tax, excise duty, etc. It removes the cascading effect of tax-on-tax, earlier prevalent. It is applicable to you if you are into manufacturing, trading, e-commerce or providing services, and your annual turnover exceeds a prescribed limit.

You can enrol for GST via the common portal of the Goods and Services Tax. ClearTax can also help you with your enrollment. For more details, click here.

Yes, a person with multiple business verticals in a state may obtain a separate registration for each business vertical (in each state).

Small businesses and taxpayers with a turnover of less than Rs.1.5 crore (Rs.75 lakh for special category states) can opt for the composition scheme where they will be taxed at a nominal rate of 0.5% or 1% (for manufacturers) CGST and SGST each (rates as per the latest proposed changes in the Goods and Services Tax bills). Composition levy is available to only small businesses dealing in goods. It is not available to interstate sellers, e-commerce traders and operators, and service providers.

The input tax credit refers to the amount of tax on purchases that you can reduce at the time of paying tax on sales. One of the fundamental features of the Goods and Services Tax is the seamless flow of input credit across the chain (from the time the goods are manufactured until it is consumed) and country.

GST replaced all the taxes currently levied and collected by the centre (such as Central Excise Duty and CVD) and by the state (such as VAT and CST) on businesses.

A business, in most cases, will be required to furnish two returns monthly and one annual return. That means any business will require to file twenty-five returns in a financial year. However, there are separate returns for a taxpayer registered under the composition scheme and as an Input Service Distributor, and a person liable to deduct or collect the tax (TDS/TCS).

The HSN code stands for “Harmonised System of Nomenclature”. This system has been introduced for the systematic classification of goods all over the world. The HSN code is a 6-digit uniform code that classifies 5000+ products and is accepted worldwide. It was developed by the World Customs Organization (WCO), and it came into effect from 1988.

ClearTax GST, with its powerful billing, vendor data mismatch reconciliation mechanism, validation engines and return filing process, serves as a single platform for all GST compliance.

The software is hosted on the cloud and accessible from anywhere at any time. You just need to sign up using your email ID and choose the type of plan you want to subscribe for. As soon as your subscription is activated, you will be able to get started. You just need an internet connection. Also, the software works both online and offline. If you work offline, the data will automatically sync as you get connected to the internet once again. Recently, we developed a desktop application, which allows direct import of data from the Tally software in the required format.

Data security is a top priority of ClearTax as a tax company. We have taken all industry safety measures to make sure that your data remains safe both while in transit as well as when at our platforms: