Ask us: I am an IFA from Mysore, Karnataka. My income by way of commission as a mutual fund distributor is around Rs.2 lakh a year. Am I liable to pay GST on my income? Also, I am not sure if interstate distributors are allowed to avail any exemption.
Vidya Prabhu, Mysore, Karnataka
Dear Vidya,
Yes, distributors from outside Maharashtra are eligible for GST exemption if their annual income is less than Rs.20 lakh a year.
Initially, the government had allowed distributors who have intrastate services to avail this benefit. However, the government has exempted distributors irrespective of location earning up to Rs.20 lakh from paying GST offering both intrastate and interstate services. So if you earn commission less than Rs.20 lakh a year, you are exempted from paying GST as on January 2020.
Ensure that you include commission from other financial products to arrive at your annual income. GST norms include commission income from all financial products such as insurance, stock broking and mutual funds to arrive at your annual income.
If you have voluntarily obtained GST registration or migrated from service tax regime to GST, you can cancel your GST registration if your annual income is less than Rs.20 lakh by visiting https://services.gst.gov.in/services/login. Create your account by keying in details such as GST registration number, email id and so on. Once you have logged in with your credentials, you will have to click on ‘cancellation of provisional registration’ appearing on the extreme right hand side.
You will have to mention the reason by simply stating that your turnover is less than Rs.20 lakh.
