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Topic: Signature Campaign earnings and GST | People please pay attention! (Read 386 times)

hero member
Activity: 2114
Merit: 619
Useful article for those who have not asked the question of taxation. When I was actively engaged in trading, I tried to understand how the tax payment system works, but I still did not understand the payment procedure. maybe someone has already dealt with such declarations and can describe the process in detail? Shocked
If you can describe your issue in detail I will explain you the process. What type of trading? Which platform did you use? Which tax payment did you try to understand? Direct or Indirect? If you need a handy guide quoting an answer I wrote on the other thread for some other person you may choose to refer this. But yes obviously tax system is pretty subjective so you should not take it as a holy grail because your circumstances may be different from this person.

First of all thanks for the great insight.  Smiley
I do have some doubts regarding crypro trading which I think you might have answers.
I want to start trading bitcoin on p2p website like paxful and lbc.
My projection is that my daily turnover would be 5-6 Lakh INR.
So is it better to start proprietorship firm and do transaction in the name of firm? If yes would I need to register for GST number?
So would I need current account for this much transaction?

Thanks.
 

This is a major issue generally faced by all the traders even those who trade on stock exchanges. Now my Opinion would be based on my Understanding of the Tax Laws and it's application with the current legal scenario of Bitcoin. It will be well backed by provisions so you definitely can make a case using it. So:

INCOME TAX
1. For stock traders there is a case law by Supreme Court where they determined that turnover of Intraday/derivative traders is to be calculated in a different manner.  Irrespective of how much you brought or sold. This is the manner of calculation:

 (i)You calculate profit/loss you had each day after squaring off the position.
 (ii)Total up all your profits and losses, by taking losses as positive. For Eg. these were your profits/:
          Profit/Loss             Turnover
Day 1:  ₹50000- Profit         50000
Day 2:  ₹40000-Profit          40000
Day 3:  ₹(30000)-Loss         30000
Day 4:  ₹(30000)-Loss         30000
Day 5:   NIL                        NIL
Day 6:  ₹20000-profit          20000
Total:   ₹50000-Profit          170000

Therefore your turnover was 1,70,000 while profit was 50k.

Pay Income Tax on 50k Accordingly and check applicability of Tax Audit according to Turnover calculated in this manner. You won't find this anywhere in the Income Tax Act/ Rules but Supreme court upheld this in case of F&O and is a very widely accepted practice for people who do F&O. But remember this was upheld by SC in that because they were of the opinion that no actual delivery took place. Same might not be accepted in case your AO is adamant in considering bitcoin a commodity rather than a Security. In such a case you might need to sum up the amount of Bitcoin you sell everyday. No matter if it reaches 21 Crores(considering 5-6 lakhs everyday). in such a case you might even need to get Books of accounts audited by a Chartered Accountant. But I would prefer you to go with the first option in my Opinion Supreme court did classify cryptocurrencies as Virtual "Currency"

GST

This is a much tedious issue than Income tax. if you consider Bitcoin as a "security" then it's exempt from GST hence no GST is chargeable. But definition of securities are to be read from securities from  Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 which states securities include:
Quote
"(h) “securities” include— (i) shares, scrips, stocks, bonds, debentures, debenture stock or other marketable securities of a like
nature in or of any incorporated company or other body corporate; 9
[(ia) derivative;(ib) units or any other instrument issued by any collective investment scheme to the investors in such schemes;] [(ic)security receipt as defined in clause (zg) of section 2 of the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002;] [(id) units or any other such instrument issued to the investors under any mutual fund scheme;] (ii) Government securities; (iia) such other instruments as may be declared by the Central Government to be securities; and (iii) rights or interest in securities"
Now as you can see bitcoin isn't a security so GST is definitely applicable. Once again issues comes upon Turnover which as per me should be calculated in a similar fashion. So take GST number only when your sales exceed 20 Lakhs.

Registration as firm
Practically there is no registration for a sole proprietor except if required under GST. But so far I don't think you need any separate firm or something. Just open a separate bank account, current account is advisable not at all mandatory(You might need letter head/CA Certificate for current account). Make transactions from this account only.

This answer is based on examination of bare facts that you have presented to me. I would prefer if you PM me in case you need specific assistance with specific facts as interpretation might change in those circumstances.
full member
Activity: 1106
Merit: 166
★777Coin.com★ Fun BTC Casino!
Useful article for those who have not asked the question of taxation. When I was actively engaged in trading, I tried to understand how the tax payment system works, but I still did not understand the payment procedure. maybe someone has already dealt with such declarations and can describe the process in detail? Shocked
If you are using your bank account for trading crypto currencies then everything will be recorded on it so you can report the taxes based on the profits and loss you made from trading on exchanges and almost every exchange will let you to download your trading history reports and better find a good auditor to get this done easily without any worries.
newbie
Activity: 9
Merit: 0
Useful article for those who have not asked the question of taxation. When I was actively engaged in trading, I tried to understand how the tax payment system works, but I still did not understand the payment procedure. maybe someone has already dealt with such declarations and can describe the process in detail? Shocked
hero member
Activity: 2114
Merit: 619
Hello,

After reading this I had a doubt, we pay taxes, I agree. But only for transactions done in fiat right ?

Everything we do with our bank account is monitored by the RBI and we are questionable and taxable for the same. They are also freezing our bank accounts for being involved in crypto trading. How do they expect us to give them data of something like this when they themselves don't support it.

Also, am I taxable if I just store my BTC as it is ? Like, I sold a service, got paid, I never cashed it out : I just want it to remain as it is in my wallet.


The question you have is actually genuine and any rational person would have this question. But this isn't how law works. Let me explain you how.

In the recent case of Mobile Association vs RBI(SC) in which crypto was unbanned from banks. Supreme court held that as per the RBI act powers of RBI are not just limited to fiat currency i.e. Rupee they are the controllers of all types of money as well as foreign currency. And foreign currency as defined in FEMA,1999 is any currency other than Indian currency and Supreme court held that Bitcoin is a virtual currency technically making it a foreign currency or atleast a foreign asset. In either case RBI does have jurisdiction over it. It's the law of the land.

About taxes I already said that there is now law governing taxes. Yet taxes generally include even those incomes whose benefits have not been received in fiat. Like in Income tax definition of Profits and gains from business includes Section 28 which says:
Hello,

After reading this I had a doubt, we pay taxes, I agree. But only for transactions done in fiat right ?

Everything we do with our bank account is monitored by the RBI and we are questionable and taxable for the same. They are also freezing our bank accounts for being involved in crypto trading. How do they expect us to give them data of something like this when they themselves don't support it.

Also, am I taxable if I just store my BTC as it is ? Like, I sold a service, got paid, I never cashed it out : I just want it to remain as it is in my wallet.



You are not paying taxes for your transactions, you are just need to pay taxes for your earnings basically the income.And taxes are not monitored by RBI so your tax reports will not be going to the bank related offices so you no need to worry about it.

As long as you are not converting your bitcoins into fiat then there is no need of reporting it to tax.
I don't think this exactly is the case. With all sorts of Adhaar authentication today. Central agencies have become even more centralized but I don't think RBI is going to freeze accounts anymore.
member
Activity: 92
Merit: 65
44ADA is your answer here! It is freelancing income slot and you can very well declare your signature campaign earning under this slot. With 44ADA, you don't need to maintain a book and you can also claim certain expenses as business development charges which will be deducted from your earning.

Not my word, it's from a reputed CA whose service I am using since last two years. You don't need to pay GST and you don't need any sort of company registration.

But definitely don't show your crypto signature campaign earnings under "income from other sources". If the amount is significant, you can get a scrutiny letter.

What do you fill in the nature of business and code when you file your income under 44ADA when earning crypto from doing freelancing online?
full member
Activity: 1106
Merit: 166
★777Coin.com★ Fun BTC Casino!
Hello,

After reading this I had a doubt, we pay taxes, I agree. But only for transactions done in fiat right ?

Everything we do with our bank account is monitored by the RBI and we are questionable and taxable for the same. They are also freezing our bank accounts for being involved in crypto trading. How do they expect us to give them data of something like this when they themselves don't support it.

Also, am I taxable if I just store my BTC as it is ? Like, I sold a service, got paid, I never cashed it out : I just want it to remain as it is in my wallet.



You are not paying taxes for your transactions, you are just need to pay taxes for your earnings basically the income.And taxes are not monitored by RBI so your tax reports will not be going to the bank related offices so you no need to worry about it.

As long as you are not converting your bitcoins into fiat then there is no need of reporting it to tax.
member
Activity: 104
Merit: 61
Hello,

After reading this I had a doubt, we pay taxes, I agree. But only for transactions done in fiat right ?

Everything we do with our bank account is monitored by the RBI and we are questionable and taxable for the same. They are also freezing our bank accounts for being involved in crypto trading. How do they expect us to give them data of something like this when they themselves don't support it.

Also, am I taxable if I just store my BTC as it is ? Like, I sold a service, got paid, I never cashed it out : I just want it to remain as it is in my wallet.

sr. member
Activity: 1820
Merit: 418
Telegram: @worldofcoinss
plz elaborate me the signature earning..

It's clean you don't pay GST for Signature earnings because the act doesn't meet the requirement.
hero member
Activity: 2114
Merit: 619
plz elaborate me the signature earning..
I am bit confused? Do you want to know what is the meaning of signature earnings or you want elaboration on the tax treatment of signature earnings? If you want to know what is a signature and signature campaign you can read the same here :
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/signature-campaign-guidelines-read-this-before-starting-or-joining-a-campaign-1684035

Alternatively if you want to know elaborative tax treatment of some issue kindly highlight that issue.
newbie
Activity: 22
Merit: 0
plz elaborate me the signature earning..
hero member
Activity: 2114
Merit: 619
44ADA is your answer here! It is freelancing income slot and you can very well declare your signature campaign earning under this slot. With 44ADA, you don't need to maintain a book and you can also claim certain expenses as business development charges which will be deducted from your earning.

Not my word, it's from a reputed CA whose service I am using since last two years. You don't need to pay GST and you don't need any sort of company registration.

But definitely don't show your crypto signature campaign earnings under "income from other sources". If the amount is significant, you can get a scrutiny letter.
Haha Avikz, we are talking about GST here. 44ADA is a presumptive income scheme under Income tax whereby you offer your income at a presumptive rate of your gross receipts. Even if you do 44ADA of income tax act. Still you have to pay GST it's an indirect tax a whole together separate law. GST is tax on supply. Income Tax is tax on income.

You definitely need to reconsider about your "Reputed CA" due to number of reasons:

1. You can't claim any expenditure of business development in 44ADA it's a flat presumptive rate which means if you have a total receipt of upto 50 lakhs you can say my income out of this is 50% or more. And the percentage you decide will be declared as income. No direct way of claiming any expense.

2. There is no law in income tax which says you don't need to pay GST if you do certain things. Only GST law can keep you out of ambit of GST which is through threshold/ negative list/ exemption. Just for clarification income tax is a direct tax and GST is an indirect tax. I doubt how a CA could even say such a thing.

3. Moroever your CA Suggested you 44ADA but let me tell 44ADA only covers the following professions:
Quote
Professionals engaged in the following professions are eligible:
Interior decorations
Technical consulting
Engineering
Accounting
Legal
Medical
Architecture
Other professionals, as mentioned below:
a. Movie artists includes a producer, editor, actor, director, music director, art director, dance director, cameraman, singer, lyricist, story writer, screenplay or dialogue writer and costume designers
b. Authorised representative means a person who represents another person for a fee before a tribunal or any authority constituted under any law. It does not include an employee of the person so represented or a person who is carrying on the profession of accountancy
c. Any other notified professionals:  Company Secretary, Information Technology, Authorised Representative, Film Artist
So tell me where do you fit yourself? Information technology professional? Nope we are just writing content and the same is not covered here. 44AD is a much more generic option for you

If I were you i would get a third party opinion from some other CA too. Moroever If your CA needs any clarifications or has any contradictions to my point you can PM me I'll give you my number and he can call me.
hero member
Activity: 2114
Merit: 619
I am not well versed with tax calculations but I have a doubt here
Quote
“Supply of goods or service or both –

(a) when the supplier is located in India and the place of supply is outside India;….. ”

Shall be treated to be a supply of goods or service or both in the course of inter-state trade or commerce.”
How will you define that the place of supply is outside India.

It's a global community and cryptocurrencies are operated globally (within and outside India).
So doesn't it hinder the regulation because in a way the supply is ALSO in India.

Correct me if I am wrong.
No it doesn't works like this. If we go by your definition even netflix/ amazon prime wouldn't have been taxed because they operate globally. Law actually  defines every aspect, for the purposes of determination of place of supply under GST we see the location of the supplier and recipient. Supplier is you who is supplying the servi e to signature campaign and recipient of supply is the signature campaign/ manager. Now as per section 13 of IGST act where either of them is not located in India. We see the place of supply of recipient which means the place of signature campaign company/ signature campaign manager which either ways would be outside India.

Moreover if the recipient is in India even then we will have to issue tax invoices if we surpass the threshold limit of 20 Lakhs. Local services were always taxable under service tax. This thread is because earlier in service tax export of service wasn't taxable but now it is.

So in brief location of recipient of supply is the place of supply under GST.

legendary
Activity: 3080
Merit: 1500
44ADA is your answer here! It is freelancing income slot and you can very well declare your signature campaign earning under this slot. With 44ADA, you don't need to maintain a book and you can also claim certain expenses as business development charges which will be deducted from your earning.

Not my word, it's from a reputed CA whose service I am using since last two years. You don't need to pay GST and you don't need any sort of company registration.

But definitely don't show your crypto signature campaign earnings under "income from other sources". If the amount is significant, you can get a scrutiny letter.
hero member
Activity: 2702
Merit: 716
Nothing lasts forever
I am not well versed with tax calculations but I have a doubt here
Quote
“Supply of goods or service or both –

(a) when the supplier is located in India and the place of supply is outside India;….. ”

Shall be treated to be a supply of goods or service or both in the course of inter-state trade or commerce.”
How will you define that the place of supply is outside India.

It's a global community and cryptocurrencies are operated globally (within and outside India).
So doesn't it hinder the regulation because in a way the supply is ALSO in India.

Correct me if I am wrong.
hero member
Activity: 2114
Merit: 619
A very crucial topic I was having in mind since many days. We all are pretty aware about our income tax obligations with regards to incomes earned by us in cryptocurrencies. But it has come to my attention that most people were declaring signature campaign/ marketing campaigns/ bounty earnings as Incomes under PGBP/ Other sources. Here there is one pretty big point on which I would like to draw your people's attention and that is GST. This is something over-looked by us because we are of the opinion that GST is merely for people doing businesses. But this is not true!!

Until the Service tax era, (pre-GST era), Export of Services were completely excluded from the space of service tax. This means that you don't have to pay service tax in services exported by you. But now things are not the same. In the IGST Act, I quote:

“Supply of goods or service or both –

(a) when the supplier is located in India and the place of supply is outside India;….. ”

Shall be treated to be a supply of goods or service or both in the course of inter-state trade or commerce.”


This means export of services is treated as interstate supply in GST liable to IGST. Therefore all our services provided to people/ exchanges/ ICO/ Websites located abroad is liable to GST. In general cases these are zero rated supplies subject to certain conditions. Which means either you once have to pay IGST and then apply for refund of GST on such servcies or you have to get Letter of Undertaking and give it to CBIC to avail such exemption. Either ways you would still need to complete all compliance. and in first case even pay tax once before you get refund of it. But we won't be able to get this refund because we will not get our payments in foreign exchange. We will get it in cryptocurrencies.

This means that all of us are doing taxable interstate supplies. But only relief is under the Basic threshold limit where it was cleared by GST council vide: Notification No. 10/2017-IT dated 13-10-17 that people doing only interstate supply of services are not required to get registered under this act if aggregate value of such supplies is below 20 Lakhs.

But remember this is in context of all the services provided by you. This means if you are doing some regular work full time and were thinking that your business doesn't needs GST you should add up your signature campaign earnings in that. Unless they are not in the same business vertical. Moreover if you are giving export of services exceeding 20 lakhs then you have to get registered and issue invoices on the same and pay taxes on such services yourselves.

So before you file your Income Tax return by merely declaring your signature earnings as other source or Business Income. Do keep all these calculations in mind. Alternatively ask help of any CA( because he would understand both Income tax And GST). I would recommend you to go to someone having knowledge of cryptocurrencies many traditional CAs are not aware completely about cryptocurrencies so seek proper help.
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