Voucher characterisation under GST turns on substance over form, with discount schemes, services, and perquisites treated differently.
GST vouchers are instruments that carry an obligation to be accepted as consideration for the supply of goods or services and identify either the supply or the supplier. The central test is substance over form: if an instrument does not satisfy the obligation-to-accept requirement, or instead functions as a service, discount, or employee perquisite, it is not a voucher. The article distinguishes vouchers from separately identifiable services, discount coupons, loyalty points, and employee benefit structures by focusing on the rights created and the real nature of the transaction. (AI Summary)

Grant classification under GST: determine if the transfer is consideration for a supply to decide taxability.
Whether transfers labelled as grants attract GST hinges on whether they constitute consideration for a supply. Distinct from subsidies that reduce customer price and form part of taxable consideration under Section 15(2)(e), grants remain non-consideratory unless agreements, deliverables, procurement-style processes, control over funds, reimbursement arrangements, or rights in outputs indicate contractual counter-obligations or commercial exploitation. Documentation-grant letters, proposals, contracts and accounting treatment-are decisive: where a majority of supply-indicators exist the transfer is taxable; absent them it is not. (AI Summary)

Actionable claim: proprietary beneficial interests in movable property may be excluded from GST where they meet specified possession and liability conditions.
An actionable claim is a proprietary beneficial interest in movable property not in the claimant's possession, recognised by civil courts as affording grounds for relief, and may be existent, accruing, conditional or contingent. To qualify: there must be underlying movable property; a proprietary right (not merely contractual) free of assignor liabilities; and absence of claimant possession. Rights that have been treated as actionable claims include assignment of contract benefits, transfer of rent arrears, insurance recoveries, partner's accounts, decretal debts and provident fund credits. Creation of rights by contract at first instance is not a transfer of an actionable claim for GST purposes. (AI Summary)

Entry tax revival: state attempts to reassess historic liabilities via removal of difficulty orders face legal validity challenges.
Challenges over historic Entry Tax focus on whether states can assess and recover taxes after subsumption under GST and repeal, given transitional provisions and statutory limitation periods. Assessments and reassessments must comply with original limitation timelines; prolonged delay typically bars recovery. The State's December Removal of Difficulty Order prescribing registration, assessment and payment procedures is criticised as exceeding limited extension powers by creating substantive obligations inconsistent with the repeal and GST framework, prompting reliance on factual defence in assessments, appellate remedies, or writ challenges. (AI Summary)

GST on assignment of leasehold rights treated lease as service but assignment as non-taxable immovable transfer, prompting critique
The High Court held that allotment of GIDC plots on lease is a supply of service under Schedule II, but a lessee's assignment of those leasehold rights is a transfer of immovable property not subject to GST. The opinion equates leasehold rights with ownership and sale of land, conflates different statutory definitions and place of supply concepts, and omits a focused analysis of assignment under contract law and GST, producing logically inconsistent characterisations and potential per incuriam error. (AI Summary)

Input Tax Credit eligibility questioned after court ruling, raising uncertainty for GST treatment of immovable property services.
The article criticises the Apex Court ruling for failing to reconcile the link between the levy and entitlement to Input Tax Credit where supplies relate to immovable property, disputing the Court's distinction between construction (tied to an occupation certificate) and renting/leasing services; it also challenges the Court's approach to plant and machinery by urging a functionality nexus test before treating buildings as plant, calls for clearer criteria for the "own account" or "setting" test for construction, and warns that these interpretive gaps in Section 17 and ITC doctrine leave significant GST uncertainty. (AI Summary)

GST on seconded employees: employer status determines reverse charge liability for salary reimbursements and imported services.
GST treatment of employee secondment turns on whether a supply exists and which entity is the real employer. Cost-sharing and revenue-sharing models may not create intercompany supplies, but services provided by foreign employees to the Indian entity can be imported services subject to reverse charge. Employer determination relies on tests such as lien on employment, de facto control, termination and payroll rights, retention of benefits, contractual designation, integration into the business, who pays wages, asset ownership, payroll continuity, and special deputation allowances. (AI Summary)

Secondment of employees and GST: reimbursement may trigger service import treatment where secondees remain employees of foreign employer.
GST on salary reimbursements for seconded employees depends on whether the arrangement is a contract of service or a contract for service: if secondees become employees of the Indian host, reimbursements are employment-related and outside GST; if they remain employees of the foreign company, the foreign entity may be supplying services to the Indian company, importing services subject to GST under the reverse charge. Determination requires a multifactorial assessment of control, payroll, lien, termination rights, integration, and benefit tests rather than any single decisive factor. (AI Summary)

GST treatment of incentives: promotional payments taxable as services, volume rebates not taxable absent contractual supply.
Discounts that reduce taxable value must be recorded on the tax invoice if given before or at supply; post supply discounts reduce value via credit notes only if pre established by agreement, linked to the invoice, and accompanied by corresponding input tax credit adjustment. Promotional incentives paid for additional marketing services are taxable as consideration for services, whereas volume based incentives absent a contractual obligation do not constitute a supply and are not leviable to GST. (AI Summary)

Transfer of development rights may be taxable under GST while sale of land remains excluded, requiring consideration segregation.
A joint development agreement comprises a transfer of development rights and an eventual sale of land, treated as separable activities for GST because land is a bundle of rights, statutory classification and administrative guidance distinguish rights transfers from sales, and enforceability and valuation principles differ. The sale of land is excluded from GST, whereas the transfer of development rights may be taxable. Consideration can be segregated by deducting the fair value of land at the agreement date from the total monetary benefits to the landowner, with the residual attributed to development rights for GST. (AI Summary)

Fixed establishment under GST determines registration liability when a supplier maintains a suitable and sufficiently permanent presence supplying services.
A fixed establishment exists where a place has a suitable structure-adequate human and technical resources-to supply or receive and use services, together with a sufficient degree of permanence evidenced by constant access to those resources; such resources may be owned or hired, and single or short-term activities do not create a fixed establishment. (AI Summary)