Common Services received at Head Office

[Kaustubh Karandikar]

XYZ having manufacturing unit cum Head Office in Maharashtra and other units outside Maharashtra. Certain common services are received at Maharashtra on which 100% credit is taken at Maharashtra. In this situation, they can raise monthly invoice in the name of other units under the category of ‘Business Support Service’ based on the value mentioned in the invoices of the service provider for common services received at Maharashtra and by adding certain percentage of mark - up on it. Once this figure is arrived at, the same needs to be apportioned in the name of each unit based on cost centre wise expenses maintained by company on monthly basis. Will this be allowed or Maharashtra should necessarily obtain ISD Registration and then distribute the credit to other units?

AI Summary

Input tax credit distribution: ISD registration preferred; cross-charge alternative carries accounting and litigation risk for common services.
Head office may take full input tax credit on common services and either obtain ISD registration to distribute that credit to other units apportioned by turnover or cost centre, or raise cross-charge invoices adding markup to allocate costs. ISD distribution is the preferred compliance method; certain payments under reverse charge cannot be directly distributed via ISD and require payment under regular registration with subsequent cross-charge to ISD. Cross-charge allocation risks accounting mismatches and potential litigation.