Applicability of service tax or VAT on E boooks & E Journals

[Sanjeev Sharma]

An Indian Company publishes e journals. It collect monthly or yearly subscrption from the clients. In some cases, passwords are mailed to clients and then they access the journals online from the web site of the publisher company. In other cases, e journals are e mailed to the clients. In both situation, what is the liability or applicablity of service tax or VAT or both on the publisher company??

[Brijesh Verma]

Dear friend, this seems to get taxed under the category 'Online information and database retrieval Service' category.

As far as VAT is concerned, my Ld. VAT expert friends might help you better.

AI Summary

Online information and database retrieval Service: e journals supplied by publishers likely attract service tax; VAT applicability unclear. An Indian publisher supplies e journals by password protected online access or by email under subscriptions; such supplies are likely to fall within the Online information and database retrieval Service category for service tax purposes, while the applicability of VAT remains uncertain and requires specialist analysis.