Vat registration applicability - sale of assets

[Rahul Bagaria]

My company is an unregistered dealer in the state of Haryana.The company is into Life Insurance Business hence only taken registration under Service Tax.We had purchased fixed assets by paying full rate of tax as unregistered dealer. Now we want to sell our fixed assets to a leasing company and take it back on lease by paying a monthly lease rental.Please suggest do we need to take a sales tax registration for selling the assets to the leasing company and charge VAT from them. Else can't the leasing company deposit the tax on our behalf as we do not want to go to the hassels of registration.Or is there no liability of tax on us.Please suggest with the best option

If the buyer is allowed to discharge the sales tax liability of the seller, the whole system of indirect system would change like reverse charge method of payment of service tax in certain cases. Therefore, you may be required to discharge VAT liability as seller and can not transfer the burden to the buyer unless there is specific provision in the VAT laws.

AI Summary

VAT liability: seller remains responsible for VAT and may need registration; buyer cannot discharge seller's tax obligation.
An unregistered dealer selling fixed assets to a leasing company cannot ordinarily transfer the obligation to account for and remit VAT to the buyer; unless the VAT law specifically permits buyer discharge, the seller remains responsible for VAT compliance and may need to obtain registration when effecting such taxable sales.