More than one month after the implementation of GST in India, the GST Network (GSTN) has now started the GST registration process for those people who do occasional business deals in one or more Indian states but have no business establishments there. The initiative was taken to make it easier for ‘casual’ businessmen to do business with a valid GST registration.
“These casual businessmen will have to register themselves on GST portal at least five working days before starting the business,” said GSTN Chairman Naveen Kumar. He further clarified that these registrations will be valid for a period of 90 days, the validity of which can be further extended for a maximum of 90 days.
In the general GST registration, the regular taxpayer is required to file ‘zero’ return for the months in which no dealings took place. The ‘casual’ taxpayers, however, will be allowed to register temporarily for a limited time-period of 3 months. These taxpayers are required to produce challans containing the information of the supplies made during the registration period, the amount of transaction, tax and others fees, and have to pay tax in advance. They can use the GST Portal like any regular taxpayer to make tax payments.
If a casual taxpayer, after paying the advance tax amount, decides to halt the business, he/she can claim tax refund at the time of applying for cancellation of GST registration.