GST is that tax regime which has perplexed every taxpayer of the country and has forced them to look for ways to adapt to the new taxation system of the country.  The very dawn of the new indirect tax regime has happened with a very pious intention of bettering the situation of the entire economy. As this is the very first kind of taxation system in itself, ambiguities about it don’t come as a surprise. Although there are numerous confusions which are doing rounds about the new indirect tax regime, GST registration is the one which tops the list.

The law clearly states that any business operating within the geographical boundaries of the country which supplies goods or services and has an annual turnover of more than INR 20 lakh (INR 10 lakh in certain areas) has to seek registration under GST.

Q1: Why GST registration?
GST registration online is the process of seeking processing by businesses which exceed the threshold limit in order to comply with the rules set forth in the law. In addition to this, it is mandatory for certain business entities to get registered under GST. The ones who fail to adhere to these regulations and carries out operational tasks without any registration will be penalised heavily as doing this is a legal offence.

Q2: Who needs to get registered under GST?
In the general context, any business which produces taxable goods or services and whose annual turnover exceeds the limit of INR 20 lakhs (INR 10 lakhs in hill stations and North Eastern region of India) will be liable to seek GST registration online. Also, the businesses which were registered in the indirect tax laws that existed in the pre-GST era like VAT, Excise and Service Tax will also have to get themselves registered under the new indirect tax regime. Apart from these, there do exist a few special cases which are highlighted in the section 3 of the act, and based on that there are certain businesses which will have to get registered under GST irrespective of their level of turnover.

Q3: Which businesses need to seek GST registration online irrespective of their turnover?
The latest GST rules specifically address all those businesses which need to get registered under GST regardless of the financial figures of annual turnover. These include the ones which are mentioned below.

• Every single entity which was registered under the pre-GST law including Excise, VAT and Service Tax has to mandatorily get registered under GST as well
• In the case wherein a registered business is transferred to another party, the transferee will have to seek the registration with direct effect from the date on which the transfer has taken place
• Any business entity which drives inter-state supply of commodities has to get registered under GST. But, there are certain exceptions to this. E-commerce sellers or aggregators who have a sale of less than INR 20 lakh shall not register; the service providers who extend their facilities inter-state and their annual turnover falls short the limit of INR 20 lakh are exempted from seeking GST registration online; job workers who make an inter-state supply of services and have an annual turnover of less than INR 20 lakh don’t have to mandatorily register under GST
• Every casual taxable person has to seek registration under GST
• Every non-resident taxable person is also liable to register under the new indirect tax regime
• All the agents of a supplier are mandated to get GST registration online
• All of those entities which are required to pay tax under the reverse charge mechanism are bound to pay taxes under GST
• GST registration is mandatory for all entities which supply by means of an e-commerce aggregator
• All the input service distributors have to mandatorily seek GST registration online
• Irrespective of the nature, all e-commerce operators or aggregators need to be registered
• Any entity which supplies virtual information and access of databases from any physical location which rests outside the geographical boundaries of the country has to be registered

Q4: How much fee needs to be paid in order to get registered under GST?
The entire process of seeking GST registration online is entirely free of cost and businesses can get themselves registered without any additional cost.

Though there are a lot of questions which come in the minds of the masses, aforementioned ones are the most common.