Liability of service tax

[Asked by Guest]

Whether subscription of foreign journal is liable to pay service tax under online data access & retrival services ?

If the subscription paid is for access of the journal through website, then the service would fall under online data access. In this case, if the service receiver is situate outside the country, then the service receiver (subscriber) in India is liable to pay tax under reverse charge method under Import of service Rules.

I doubt that Subscription of foreign journals ( whether online or in print) is covered by Service tax. Please clarify.

[Surender Gupta]

By mere subscribing foreign journal and receiving through email can not be subject to service tax. However, if the foreign company provides information on its website and you access the information after making payment the same shall subject to service tax.

AI Summary

Online data access: paid online journal subscriptions can attract service tax with reverse charge for imported services.
Subscription payments that purchase access to journal content hosted on a website fall within online data access and retrieval services and are taxable; where the service is an imported service, the Indian recipient is liable under the reverse charge mechanism pursuant to the Import of Service Rules. Mere receipt by email or print subscriptions is viewed by commentators as not automatically taxable.