Service Tax and Advertising Courier and Pager services — New procedure

Service tax valuation rules on advertising and courier services clarify taxable inclusions and remittance obligations.

Advertising agencies must include gross amounts charged to clients-commissions, market research, travel, production expenses and other related expenditures-in the taxable value, excluding media space/time paid directly. Agencies remain legally liable for tax even if not collected. Courier operators must include co-loader charges, door to door and integrated logistics charges and exports in taxable value, while inbound deliveries are not taxable. Paging is taxable on gross subscriber charges. Collected tax must be deposited to the Central Government by the 15th of the following month and interest and penalties apply for late or non remittance.