Launched on April 1, 2017, the Goods & Services Tax (GST) applies to all Indian service providers (including freelancers), traders and manufacturers, once their supply turnover crosses Rs. 20 lakh. The GST is an all-in-one tax that subsumes a variety of state (VAT, Entertainment Tax, Luxury Tax, Octroi) and central taxes (CST, Service Tax, Excise Duty). GST is to be charged at every step of the supply chain, with complete set-off benefits available.

The procedure for GST is completely online and requires no manual intervention. There will also be a composition scheme under GST for businesses with a supply turnover of less than Rs. 1.5 crore.is a consolidated tax, this means that both central and state taxes have been merged together. A feature of the GST is that the whole country will have one uniform tax rate. Earlier, this was not the case.

Every business or corporation that are involved in the buying and selling and good of services have to register for GST. It is mandatory for businesses whose turnover is more than Rs. 20 lakhs annually to register for a GST. For the North East states, the prescribed amount is Rs.10 lakhs.

All persons who make interstate outward supplies of goods have to register for a GST too. The same applies to people making taxable supplies on behalf of other taxable persons, example Agents and Brokers.