1. Attention of the
trade is invited to the provisions of sub-rules (7) and (8) of the Rule 4 of
the Service Tax Rules, 1994, which provide for surrender of registration
certificate in the case of an assessee who ceases to provide the taxable
services for which he is registered. The Superintendent of Central Excise after
ensuring that the assessee has paid all the Service Tax dues may cancel such
registration
2.Taking note of the
fact that large number of assesses are inactive and number of applications are
pending for surrender/cancellation of service tax registration, following
guidelines are issued detailing the procedure to be followed in t is
regard
3. An application for
surrender/cancellation of the service tax registration is to be made for
following reasons:-
a) Assessee's
turnover is below the threshold limit.
b) Change in the
constitution of assessee, say from partnership to company or
amalgamations,
c) Death of
proprietor.
d) Assessee closing
down the taxable service business.
e) Assessee has taken
centralized registration and hence wants to surrender his other previous
multiple registrations pertaining to various branches.
f) Assessee has shifted
its office from the jurisdiction of one Division/Commissionerate to
another and instead of requesting for change in the location code and premises
code of the assessee, a fresh registration has been taken for the new address.
Therefore, a need arises for surrender of the old registration.
g) Due to technical
error in the system, the assessee has been issued multiple registrations for
the same address. In that case, the additional registrations are required to be
surrendered.
4 Assessees who wish
to surrender their registration certificates shall file their application
on-line using the ACES module on www.aces,gov.in. On successful filing of the
online application, the assessee shall submit the copies of documents mentioned
at para 5 along with signed copy of the printout of the application generated
by the ACES System to the jurisdictional Group Superintendent or
Superintendent(s) of the Registration Cell' in the concerned Divisional office.
For, surrendering application, submitted by an assessee who had obtained
registration 01.04.2010 and not migrated to ACES, requirement of online filing
of has been done away with and for this purpose the procedure given in para 8.1
below may be referred to.
5 All the
assessees falling under category (a) to (g) of Para 3 are required to submit
following documents:
(i) Application Form
& Undertaking to surrender the Service Tax Registration
(ii) Copies of last
six ST-3 returns filed with the department from the date of taking registration
till the date of surrender but up to a maximum of last six returns
Where the assessee has
not filed ST-3 returns for the period mentioned above, on account of the
reasons that the turnover is within the threshold limit of small service
providers exemption then it is not necessary for him to file fresh return for
surrender purpose only. He can apply for waiver of penalty under Rule 7C of STR
for non-filing of returns. Instructions have been issued for waiver of penalty
for non filing of return where total turnover was less than threshold limit.
The fact of non-filing of return should be clearly mentioned in the
undertaking.
(iii) Copies of Profit
& Loss account and Balance Sheet from the date of taking registration to
the date of surrender, but for a maximum of last 3 financial years only.
However, if Balance Sheet or Profit & Loss Statement has not been prepared,
the applicant may submit copies of Income Tax Return for the said period. If
said return has also not been filed then applicant should provide appropriate
evidence like Bank Statement so as to enable the department to verify the
reason stated for surrender. [Not required for category (e) & (g)]
(iv) Details of Show
Cause Notice pending adjudication, details of confirmed demands, details of
court cases, details of audit conducted, etc. as per Annexure-II.
5.2 In case of an
assessee falling under category (c) of para 3 above, the death certificate of
the proprietor needs to be enclosed along with the application form.
5.3 In case of change
of constitution [category (b) of para 3] the necessary documents like
Partnership deed or Articles of Association etc. showing change of constitution
may be enclosed along with application for surrender. In case of merger or
acquisition necessary documents such as Order passed by the Hon'ble High Court
or Article of Association to that effect, may be enclosed alongwith the
application of surrender,
5.4 In case of
assessee taking centralized registration [category (e) of para 3], the copy of
centralized registration certificate, showing the premises for which surrender
application is being submitted, should also be enclosed along with the
application for surrender.
5.5 For the cases
covered by category (g) of Para 3 above, copy of registration certificate for
which the applicant wants to continue with should also be submitted 'with the
application for surrender.
6. After submission of
the required documents as per above details the Superintendent concerned may
require further information like reconciliation of the income shown in the
Profit & Loss Account with the taxable income declared in ST-3 return
However, reconciliation information would not be necessary in case of taking
centralized registration or in case of shifting of office from one jurisdiction
to other jurisdiction or in case of technical error resulting in multiple
registration or in case of turnover as per income statement/Profit & Loss
account being below the exemption limit.
7. The assessee should
submit the required documents with proper indexing of enclosures. As far as
possible all these documents will be verified by the Superintendent or
Inspector at the time of its submission itself. In case of any deficiency , the
same shall be informed to the assessee at the time of receipt of the documents.
It may be noted that if the assessee fails to submit the complete set of hard
copies within 15 days of submission of online application, it is liable to be
rejected.
8.1 In case the
applicant has taken Service Tax registration prior to 01.04.2010 and has not
migrated to ACES system, it is not necessary for such assesses to migrate to
ACES for surrendering their registration. They can apply for surrender of
registration by a manual application, alongwith other documents as required,
without filing the online surrender application. Instruction have been issued
to liberally cancel the registration for assessee who had taken registration in
the past when there was no threshold limit. Further, in those cases the
intimation regarding the cancellation shall be sent by post.
8.2 The assessees who
have misplaced the User-id & Password for transacting in ACES may approach
the 'Help Desk' of the respective Division along with filled in application
Form (format enclosed as Annexure-III) for generating T-pin. Using the T-pin
generated by the System, which will be received by the applicant through
e-mail.
9. The Superintendent
shall process the application for surrender of registration and after
successful cancellation of the registration, will inform the assessee through
e-mail, and then the assessees can make surrendering application through
ACES.
10. In case of any
difficulty, Assistant Commissioner/Deputy Commissioner of the concerned
Division may be approached for the resolution of grievance.
11.
Surrender Application shall be accepted in person between 3.00 to 5.00 PM in
the division, the trade association are requested to bring the contents of this
Trade notice to the attention of their members, in particular and the trade in
general
