QUESTION

I am ICWA and provide GST related consultancy with retainership service of return filling as well filling of Annual return of clients with fee or without fee. some clients are paying fee forGST9C or 9 but some are saying these are inclusive in your quarterly bill raised by you for retainership work or consultancy as well.and we are also having another firm with the name of wife , who is Post graduate in English in this firm The common and other staff provide the GST return filling service . here no 9C work is done this work is done by ICWA or another CA of the company. whether above practice of providing same service by two tax payer from same staff is as per GST law? pl note both tax payer are filling income tax return separately and having separate bank account but expenses are common which are shared by both firm .Second, one firm of ICWA is registered with GST and another wife firm is not registered being turnover is around 15 lakh since 2017-18 and in pre GST regime turnover was below 8 Lakh. please guide whether above practice is as per law or what precaution we have to take whether clubbing of income is possible with GST firm pl guide in this regard with proper noting.

ANSWER

Facts of the case: An ICWA providing GST related consultancy with retainership service of return filling as well as filling of Annual return of clients with fee or without fee. Some clients are paying fee for GST9C or 9 but some are saying these are inclusive in quarterly bill raised for retainership work or consultancy. He is having another firm with the name of wife who is Post graduate in English in this firm. The common and other staff provide the GST return filling service. Both taxpayer are filling income tax return separately and having separate bank account but expenses are common which are shared by both firm. One firm of ICWA is registered with GST and another wife firm is not registered being turnover is around 15 lakh since 2017-18 and in pre GST regime turnover was below 8 Lakh. Whether above practice is as per law or what precautions to be taken, whether clubbing of income is possible with GST firm.

Reply: Although there are no provisions of clubbing in GST yet it can be done because the same was the situation in the excise regime. There was no provision in law for authorizing the excise officer to club two or more units claiming SSI exemption in excise but there are several cases relating to clubbing of units in excise.
To avoid it you have the following alternatives:
Appoint separate staff for both the persons
or
Raise invoice for the services used by another person (Reply dt. 19/03/2021)