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Remuneration Paid To Directors To Attract GST: Authority For Advance Ruling

The company said its directors are working as employees and are being compensated by way of a regular salary and allowances.

An employee holds Indian rupee banknotes while writing on a notepad in Mumbai, India. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)
An employee holds Indian rupee banknotes while writing on a notepad in Mumbai, India. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)

Companies will have to pay GST on the remuneration they dole out to directors, the Authority for Advance Ruling has said.

In an application filed before the Rajasthan bench of the AAR, Clay Craft India Pvt. Ltd. had sought clarification on whether salaries paid to directors would attract Goods and Services Tax.

The company said its directors are working as employees for which they are being compensated by way of a regular salary and other allowances.

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"The company is deducting TDS on their salary and PF laws are also applicable to their service. Therefore, in all practical purposes these directors are the employees of the company and are working as such besides being Director of the company," it said.

In its ruling, the AAR said, "the consideration paid to the directors by the applicant company will attract GST under reverse charge mechanism..."

The AAR, while analysing the case, said that Director is the supplier of services and the applicant of the company is the recipient of the services.

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It said that the Central Tax (Rate) notification clearly states that services supplied by a Director of a company will be considered as supply and hence directors cannot be called an employee.

"So it is very clear that the services rendered by the Director to the company for which consideration is paid to them in any head is liable to pay GST under Reverse Charge Mechanism," the AAR order said.

AMRG & Associates Senior Partner Rajat Mohan said, "This ruling needs to be clarified by government, otherwise, lower authorities may take legally incorrect view creating havoc in the business community".