27 February 2012
A Client of mine provides website development services to his clients based abroad. All the services are provided to the clients situated abroad. The fees are received by the client in foreign exchange converted in Indian Rupees. He does not provide service to any person in India.
Want to know whether the client will have to get himself registered under "Design Service" in Service Tax and pay the tax?
web developement and hosting not taxable as of now.
It can be argued that it falls in the category of Information Technology which is exempted from Business Auxiliary services.Software developement is exempt from service tax
However, software maintenance is taxable under repairs services wef 7.10.2005 (Dept says taxable from 9.7.2004)
Thank you for your reply. However, FYI the website design and development is covered under service tax and is taxable. In my case the client is providing the service out of India and none of the receipts are received in INR. SO, this will be treated as Export of Service and accordingly is not liable for Services Tax registration and tax liability.