REGISTRATION FOR PROFESSIONAL

Meaning of Professionals  -  Professionals for the tax purposes in India include Architects, Chartered Accountants, Company Secretaries, Cost Accountants, Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, Technical Consultants, Interior Decorators, Film Directors, Cameramen, Artists, Singers, Authors, IT Professionals, Authorised Representative etc. The above have been listed out specifically as professions in section 44AA under Income Tax Act, 1961 and notified there under (Notifications No. SO-17(E) dated 12.1.77, No. SO 2675 dated 25.9.1992 and No. SO 385(E), dated 4.5.2001). These normally are applicable for the purposes of GST as well.

GST Exemption Limit for Professionals- Small Professionals having gross receipts less than 20 lakhs have been provided exemption from GST compliance vide Notification No. 10/2017-Central Tax dated 13/10/2017.

GST Rate for Professionals- Currently 18% rate of GST is applicable on almost all categories of professionals in India except some specific exemptions provided for healthcare services. These professionals need to get themselves registered under GST laws, collect GST @ 18% on their invoices and deposit the same to the Government treasury, after adjusting allowed set offs-ITC, if any.

Documents Required For GST Registration of Professionals- 1.PAN 2.Photo 3.Address Proof 4.Address Proof for Office 5.NOC if Office is on rent 6.Mobile No. and Email ID

Return Filings Under GST- Once the registration is done, monthly, quarterly and annual filings are required depending upon the facts of the particular case. Major relevant GST forms are GSTR 3B, GSTR 1 etc.

Period For Which Records To Be Maintained- GST laws mandate keeping of relevant records such as accounts, invoices etc. for minimum 6 years.

GSTN PORTAL

As every Indian taxpayer knows about official GST return filing GSTN portal. The portal is used for filing GSTR forms 1 to 9 along with the tax payments. This informational GSTN portal keeps each and every data that provides the helpful guide about services, registration process, tutorials, GST practitioner guide, payment guide, challan creation and much more.
1	Login Panel on Top Right of GSTN Portal - This is the important section through which a taxpayer can access the portal and his business account. The login section required username and password of the registered taxpayers to give them access to their account. Also one can register as a new taxpayer through the help of sign up.
2	Services Under Header Menu of GST Portal - Under the services tab of GST Portal, there are 4 kinds of sub-categories :
A	Registration - Under the registration tab, every taxpayer can register in the goods and services tax regime. Registration tab also has 3 sub -tabs namely:                 New registration – In this tab, a new fresh GST registration is done of taxpayers with all the details. Track application status – In this tab, the taxpayers can check their application filed for registration. Application for filing clarification – In case, any registration was rejected or pending for any reason, the taxpayer can file clarification and get cleared for its registration.
B	Payments - Under the payments tab of GSTN portal, the taxpayers can pay the taxes accrued under the GST. The payments tab has further 2 sub tabs namely: Create Challan – The taxpayers can file the details for taxes under heading CGST, SGST and IGST along with the sale purchase details and can further generate the challan for paying the taxes. Track payment status – Once the taxpayer had filed the returns and paid the taxes, he can track the tax payment status under this tab with details including GSTIN and other details of the business.
C	User services - Under this tab, the user can take general services related to the goods and services tax including basic queries. Contacts – The taxpayer can find contacts of authorized personnel of GST to ask any query or for any suggestions. Search office address – Here one can find the office address of authorized GST processing for any personal visit regarding the taxes. Generate user ID for the advance ruling – In this tab of GST portal, the taxpayer can generate his user ID for any petition related query in the advance ruling. Cause list – Any cause-related query can be solved under this tab. Grievance/ Complaint – This tab helps the taxpayers to file any complaint regarding the working of the portal or GST return filing complaints. Locate GST practitioner – One can find authorized GST practitioner under this tab and can take services for proper GST return filing.
D	Refund - Form RFD 01 A - A functionality for refund of Input Tax Credit of inputs/input services attributed to export of Goods & Services has been provided to taxpayers on the GST Portal, as per Rule 89(4) of CGST Rules, 2017. This refund application can be filed only if, Form GSTR 3B has been filed by the taxpayer for that particular tax period. This refund application can be filed only once for a tax period.
3	GST Law - For any kind of information regarding the GST laws and provision, one can visit the tab. It provides all the relevant rules and guides over CGST, SGST and IGST based rules across the states.
4	Downloads - In this tab, the taxpayers can download various offline tools to file the GST return when offline. The offline tools can save the tax details at the time of tax entry and can be uploaded later when being online. There are numerous offline tools like Returns offline tools, Tran 1/2 offline tools, ITC forms offline tools, GSTR forms offline tools.
5	Search Taxpayer - One can also find the status and complete details of taxpayers registered under goods and services tax regime on GST web portal. For this one must go under this tab and select any one of the tabs given: Search by GSTIN/UIN – Under this tab, the person must enter the unique GSTIN provided to the business entity and can also be found at the entrance of the business unit or store as mandated by the government authorities. After inputting GSTIN, a complete detail are given to the taxpayer including the category of its business i.,e. normal or composition scheme, tax return filing status, place of business, date of registration and much more. Search by PAN – Under this tab, one can simply put the PAN of the taxpayer can find all the relevant details fo the taxpayer under the GST. Search Composition taxpayer – Under this tab, the person can find out whether the business unit is regarded as composition scheme as there is a provision in which the composition scheme dealers cannot collect taxes from the consumer. To check if one can enter the GSTIN details under this menu of GSTN portal.
6	Help - Under this tab, one can find technical help regarding the goods and services tax. System requirements – Under this tab the person can know all the system related requirement for the operation of offline tools and any utility to file GST return on the authorized government GST portal. User manual videos and FAQs – The taxpayers can find all the relevant videos and FAQs on the queries related to goods and services tax. Document required for registration – The taxpayer can get all the list of documents required for the registration and thus can register under the GST prepared.
7	E-Way Bill System - Under this tab, the taxpayer gets all the features based on GST E Way Bill and its tracking. There are multiple features available under this tab such as: Movement of Goods under GST CGST Rules Chapter XVI Rule 138 & Annexure of exempted goods e-Way Bill Portal FAQs e-Way Bill Portal User Manual
8	News | Updates | Events - This section covers all the information regarding upcoming important events and news related to the goods and services tax regime. All the updates are according to the dates and one can simply find all the sections and categories in it.
9	Popular Help Topics - This section is helpful for all the taxpayers who are having any issues related to the filing or payment of taxes. There are FAQs which helps the taxpayers in every kind of issues and doubts over GST return filing or any other problems over the GSTN portal.
10	Taxpayers (Normal/TDS/TCS) and GST Practitioners - This section is helpful for all the taxpayers who are having any issues related to the filing or payment of taxes. There are FAQs which helps the taxpayers in every kind of issues and doubts over GST return filing or any other problems over the GSTN portal.
11	Important Dates - This section provides all the upcoming due dates of the GSTR forms along with details over GSTR forms and highlighting those GST forms whose due dates are coming soon.
12	About GST- In this section, the visitor can find all the relevant details of GST council and its structure and the history of goods and services tax and its formation to implementation.
13	Website Policies - Every website must follow some guidelines to stay activated on the web platform and here in this section one can find all the related details of website policies of GSTN portal and how do they work and what are the policies and rules to which the GST portal adhere to.
14	Related Sites - Here the visitor can go to other government websites related to the taxation and compliance for tax. Central board of excise and customs and state tax websites can be reached through this section.
15	Help - This section will assist the visitor in all the basic requirement of the computer to install and run the GST return filing procedure along with PDF guides for filing the returns and registration documents list.
16	Contact Us - The section gives the contact details of the GSTN portal instance department linked to the website